Three players sent down to AHL’s Moose ahead of break

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This article was published 21/01/2019 (2420 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two youngsters made big impressions during the Winnipeg Jets’ two-game road trip.

Brendan Lemieux scored his fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the year and was the sparkplug on an effective fourth line, while young Finnish-born defenceman Sami Niku earned a pair of assists against the Predators.

For now, Winnipeg reassigned Niku and veteran pro Cam Schilling to the Manitoba Moose to bolster the AHL club’s blue line this week while the big club is idle.

Schilling made his presence felt immediately, scoring once and setting up another goal as the Moose doubled up on the San Antonio Rampage 4-2 on Sunday afternoon at Bell MTS Place. Niku didn’t dress for Manitoba.

Either player or both could soon be recalled, depending on the status of injured Jets defencemen Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot.

Chiarot (lower body) made the trip, but stayed in the press box. He’s missed three straight games now, but should be good to go when the team plays in Philadelphia on Jan. 28 and Boston on Jan. 29.

Byfuglien (lower body) has been skating and could return after the break or likely within a week after that. Nikolaj Ehlers (upper body) is still likely two or three weeks away from rejoining the club, Jets head coach Paul Maurice said.

He said the break couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.

“Rest is a good thing for us. We’re finishing a tough stretch of hockey and we’ve got a lot of guys who block shots,” Maurice said.

“Three or four days is going to clean up a lot of aches and pains, so we’ll take the break.”

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The Jets quietly sent forward Mason Appleton down to the farm Sunday in what is expected to be a “paper move” only, meant to save the club some salary cap space over the next week.

Appleton, who has been playing a regular shift with the Jets, is not likely to actually see any action with the Moose. The Jets wouldn’t want to risk injury for a player they’re counting on, and he will be recalled prior to taking on the Flyers next week.

Now an NHL player, Appleton missed his Moose “bobble head game” on Saturday afternoon at Bell MTS Place and, despite being named as the Moose representative for the upcoming AHL all star game, has already been replaced by Logan Shaw.

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With the Jets leading the division, Maurice earned the right to run the bench for Central all-star squad during the NHL mini-tournament Saturday. The only fragment of a game plan he’ll go with is to ensure Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler form a united front in the 3-on-3 tournament.

“There’s a very real chance that I won’t say anything the entire weekend,” he said, grinning.

“It’s not a coach-player relationship with any of them. They’re all good guys, you’ll hear some funny stories, you’ll drink a lot of coffee and just hang out.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell