Road worriers

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The final buzzer had just sounded on Tuesday night in downtown Winnipeg and Dylan DeMelo was already thinking about what comes next.

“Now we’ve got to take that act on the road,” the veteran Jets defenceman said shortly after his team had put the finishing touches on a third straight victory to close out a five-game homestand.

Indeed they do. If the Jets are to truly get back in the playoff race, they’re going to have to start winning games in enemy territory. That could be a tough task, considering the club has lost nine straight contests (0-7-2) outside the cozy confines of Canada Life Centre dating all the way back to a Nov. 29 victory in Nashville.

They’ll try to snap the skid by facing one of the league’s top teams, the Minnesota Wild, here on Thursday night. Making life even more difficult is the fact three defencemen — Neal Pionk, Colin Miller and Haydn Fleury — are all suddenly sidelined indefinitely with various injuries.

“We’ve got some bad news going here,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said following Wednesday’s team skate in Winnipeg prior to boarding the charter.

“Fleury will go week-to-week, Miller will go week-to-week, and Pionk will go week-to-week.”

Fleury was hurt in a Jan. 6 game against Vegas, Miller went down on Jan. 11 against New Jersey and Pionk re-aggravated an existing issue in Tuesday’s 5-4 win over the New York Islanders.

“It’s huge. You get into your top four, that’s a big impact,” said Arniel. “So look to the kids coming in, getting an opportunity. Hopefully they can step up and help us.”

Top blue-line prospect Elias Salomonsson has been summoned from the Manitoba Moose, and he’s likely to jump right into the lineup after making his NHL debut earlier this season and appearing in four games with the Jets. Isaak Phillips is also on recall from the farm team as an additional option.

Expect the top three of Josh Morrissey, Dylan Samberg and DeMelo to really be leaned on during this stretch, with Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn taking on expanded roles as well. Those two have been the subject of recent trade rumblings, since they are both in the final year of their existing contracts.

“It’s tough to do when you’re playing a lot of games, although Josh would like to be out every shift anyway. But you’ve got to manage the game within the game,” said Arniel.

“You’ve got to see where we’re at. That’s how we kind of monitor each period. Get a pretty good tell-tale sign of your defenceman’s creeping in around nine, 10 minutes, or eight or nine minutes in the first period. It’s hard. You’ve got to see what the score is, where you’re at that way, and kind of manage it best you can.”

The Jets woke up Wednesday in 31st overall in the NHL and still eight points out of the final Western Conference wild-card playoff spot with 37 regular-season games remaining. Eleven of those will be played in the next 21 days leading into the Olympic break. How the Jets fare in that span will likely determine whether GM Kevin Cheveldayoff enters “sell” mode.

Facing a 26-12-9 Minnesota team that sits fourth-overall in the league and has already beaten them twice in Winnipeg this year — 3-0 on Nov 23 and 4-3 on Dec. 27 — should provide some additional clarity.

“Obviously our rivalry with them, how we play against them… we could be one point apart or as far apart as we are right now, it brings out the best in both of us,” said Arniel.

“I think we had a really good game in here the last time we played. I know they’ve lost a couple at home, some tight ones, and I’m sure they’re looking to get back on the board. But at the end of the day we want to keep ourselves rolling.”

The Jets beat the Wild 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 28, part of a 4-0-0 start to the season on the road for the Jets (and a 9-3-0 mark out of the gate overall). But Winnipeg has just three wins in 18 away games since (3-13-2).

However, this recent stretch at home has provided at least a glimmer of hope.

“I actually mentioned it to the players (Wednesday). All we’re doing is trying to pick off the team ahead of us,” said Arniel.

“All we’re doing is trying to pick off the team ahead of us.”

“There’s one team that’s one point ahead of us, there’s a couple others that are, I think, three points ahead of us. Just pick off the next team. Keep climbing. Keep taking steps. Climb the ladder. Keep trying to do that, and hopefully other things will have to happen with other teams as well. And, hopefully, when you win, they lose and you gain ground.”

The Jets recently set an NHL record by losing 13 straight games which were decided by a single goal. But they’ve now found a way to win two straight games by the narrowest of margins, suggesting they aren’t as fragile as they recently were.

“It definitely feels great. Winning is a lot more fun than losing. But we also know it’s still a long road ahead of us, and try to take it game by game and go from there,” said forward Nino Niederreiter.

“There were certain times (during an 11-game winless stretch) we played well. And there’s a lot of times where we just find a way to lose hockey games. And obviously, last three games, it’s nice to be on the other side.”

“Winning is a lot more fun than losing.”

Secondary scoring had all but disappeared for the Jets in recent weeks, but suddenly there’s no shortage of it. Winnipeg scored 20 times during the five-game homestand, with plenty of ice-cold players heating up. Niederreiter, for example, ended a 17-game pointless streak this past weekend with assists in wins over Los Angeles and New Jersey.

“There’s some interesting bounces we had lately, and that’s something which we needed to get the guys going, and that definitely helps a lot,” said Niederreiter, who is now just three points away from 500 in his career.

All five of Winnipeg’s goals against the Islanders came with traffic in front of the net, as screens and tips made life miserable for goaltender Ilya Sorokin. Captain Adam Lowry ultimately scored the game-winner late in the third, deflecting a Pionk point shot.

“That’s exactly what we need,” said Niederreiter.

There was some good injury news on Wednesday, as forward Morgan Barron shed his non-contact jersey and was a full participant at practice. The powerful, speedy forward who is having a terrific season has missed the past three games with an upper-body ailment but could be an option against the Wild.

Regardless of who’s in or who’s out, Niederreiter said the Jets need to bring the sense of urgency that was evident during these past three games.

“I mean, there’s no (other) option right now, right? We put ourselves in quite a hole,” he said. “You take (it) day by day, game by game, and try to find a way to get out of it.”

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