Jets lose in OT to Mammoth

SALT LAKE CITY — Adam Lowry stood in front of the Winnipeg Jets media backdrop, a grim look on his face, and immediately put on a display of public accountability by pointing the finger of blame at himself.

“That’s on me,” the captain told the Free Press. He was referring to Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth inside Delta Center — a game in which his team essentially didn’t show up for the first half, mounted a frantic late rally and then gave away a valuable point just 13 seconds into the three-on-three session.

Lowry was a surprising choice to start the fourth period, given that head coach Scott Arniel typically sends out top-scoring centre Mark Scheifele, along with linemate Kyle Connor and No. 1 defenceman Josh Morrissey. But the bench boss opted to go with a more defensive posture off the hop, hoping Lowry could win the faceoff and gain possession.

“It was a case of hopefully you go out and do the right things and get a chance to get the next group out there,” Arniel explained afterwards of using Lowry, along with Gabe Vilardi and Neal Pionk.

“It didn’t happen.”

Lowry lost the draw to Clayton Keller, left his feet to try and pokecheck the puck away but missed, then watched the younger, speedier Dylan Guenther blow by him — an attempted bodycheck missed badly — and feed Keller for the winner on the ensuing 2-on-1.

“It just starts leaving my feet, you know, trying to whack that puck and just get a better angle,” Lowry said of the sequence of doom.

“He kind of victimized me in the first period. A little different, five-on-five, but he comes with a head of steam, you get caught flat-footed, and you kind of guess. I know they’re highly skilled players. You know, that one sucks.”

It’s been a struggle for Lowry to get back up to speed, figuratively and literally, following offseason hip surgery. The 32-year-old hasn’t produced much offence, with just one goal and four assists in 23 games, but you know it really stings when his normally stellar defensive work comes into question.

Winnipeg has now lost 17 of its past 23 games (6-14-3) and sits at a woeful 15-17-3 overall. They are just one point out of the NHL basement and six points out of the final Western Conference wildcard spot — currently held by 18-17-3 Utah — just a season removed from having the best regular-season record in the league. They are in a world of hurt.

IT’S NOT JUST HOW YOU FINISH, BUT ALSO HOW YOU START: Sure, the final painful play by Lowry will be discussed and dissected by fans for days. But a valid argument could be made that the Jets actually lost the game a lot earlier in the night.

Once again, this was a team that says one thing — get off to a strong start, stay out of the penalty box, play good defence, find ways to score — and then comes out and does the polar opposite.

They looked disorganized. Disinterested, even. And they were on the verge of disaster as Utah grabbed a 1-0 lead barely five minutes into the game, added a second goal before the midway mark and then grabbed what looked like a commanding three-goal lead just 3:01 into the second stanza.

Arniel was struggling to hide his anger.

“That was, again, another real… What’s the right adjective here? That first period was ugly. It was really ugly,” he said.

“We’ve done it in this building before. Certainly, Utah brings out the worst in us. That’s a bad start by everybody and it just got us behind the eight ball and then we’re chasing the game.”

The same questions keep getting asked of players — why do you guys keep starting games so slowly? — and, to date, nobody has come up with a reasonable answer.

“It’s about finding that consistently, finding that compete every night. Start to finish, not when we get down 3-0 or 3-1 in games,” said Lowry. “But, from the get-go. And that starts with me.”

Added Connor: “We’ll look for a solution over the break. That’s obviously a focal point for us coming into the second half.”

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK: Did Utah just get a little too comfortable with its big lead, especially against a team that isn’t exactly scaring anyone these days, and take the foot off the gas? Or did the Jets start to play the way they say they are capable of?

Perhaps a bit of both.

Connor cut the deficit to 3-1 at 11:18 of the second period when he ripped a perfect one-timer past Karel Vejmelka with his team on the power play. Scheifele and Vilardi had the assists.

It was a magical marker for Connor — the 300th of his career.

“Pretty cool milestone,” he said. “Once you look back on your career that’s the kind of stuff you’ll remember. But right now it’s focus on winning and trying to be the best player I can and help out. So it doesn’t really mean much right now.”

Connor struck again with just under five minutes left in regulation, this time wiring a feed from Morrissey. Just like that, the Jets had a pulse. Connor is now tied with Scheifele for the team lead with 17 goals.

Hearts really got racing 25 seconds later when Morgan Barron used his speed to get in behind the Mammoth defence, taking a pass from Tanner Pearson and beating Vejmelka with a snap shot to tie it up.

“We got better in the second, certainly dominated in the third. But at the end of the day, you can’t play two periods in this league and look to have success,” said Arniel.

“That’s 35 games, for me, of inconsistency throughout the games themselves or that might be individual players. In the remaining 47, that has to change.”

Arniel said a significant factor in his overtime deployment was trying to give Scheifele, Connor and Morrissey an extra minute or two to catch their breath.

“I rode them pretty hard right down to the last shift (of the third period),” he said. “It was more of a case of Low, start with the puck, win the draw. Hopefully that was the scenario.”

KEY PLAY: The lost faceoff by Lowry and the series of events that followed proved to be the difference.

THREE STARS:

1. UTAH RW Clayton Keller: 1 goal, 1 assist

2. WPG LW Kyle Connor: 2 goals

3. UTAH RW Dylan Guenther: 2 assists

EXTRA, EXTRA: Connor Hellebuyck made his fifth straight start, all over the past nine days, since returning from arthroscopic knee surgery. Although his numbers in this one don’t look too pretty — 22 shots, 18 saves — it’s hard to fault him on any. Vejmelka, who always seems to give the Jets fits, stopped 23 of 26 shots he faced.

Winnipeg went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off all three penalties they took.

The Jets made one lineup change, with defenceman Colin Miller replacing Haydn Fleury. Forward Cole Koepke and blue-liner Luke Schenn were the other healthy scratches.

Arniel started the game with Gustav Nyquist on the top line with Scheifele and Connor, but abandoned that plan after just one unsuccessful period. Nyquist still has yet to score a goal, with just seven assists in 26 games.

Several other Jets forwards are ice cold as well including Jonathan Toews (one assist in 19 games), Vlad Namestnikov (one assist in 23 games), Nino Niederreiter (no points in 11 games) and Cole Perfetti (2 goals in 21 games).

The Jets return to action on Saturday when they host the Minnesota Wild.

“Go do what you have to do with family,” Arniel said when asked what his holiday message is to his players.

“Enjoy your time and do some inner soul searching here and recognize that we’re not going to be successful and we’re not going to get ourselves back in the race unless each and every individual there takes this up another notch. Clear your mind, clear your head and get yourself ready to go for the second half.”

winnipegfreepress.com/mikemcintyre