Jets claim third straight with 3-1 win over Coyotes

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This article was published 05/01/2022 (1430 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

GLENDALE — They don’t ask how. They ask how many. And the answer for the Winnipeg Jets is three in-a-row, even if the latest one won’t be headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame for enshrinement.

A 3-1 victory over the sad-sack Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night certainly ranked low on the excitement scale, so it’s probably a good thing that thousands of fans came dressed as empty seats to Gila River Arena. It was, however, ranked high on the importance scale for a Winnipeg team trying to get back in the playoff race.

“I think we have an understanding of our opponent and how we have to play to be successful,” said interim head coach Dave Lowry, who improves to 3-1-0 at the helm.

“If we get into games where we want to get into a track meet, we’re probably not doing ourselves a favour. There’s a certain way that you have to get your team to play, there’s a certain way to win in this league. For us, we want to make sure we take care of our end. We will create more than enough chances, we will create more than enough opportunities to win hockey games.”

Winnipeg improves to 16-11-5 and moves to within one point of the final Western Conference playoff spot. Arizona falls to 6-22-3.

After two straight wins over division-leading St. Louis and Vegas, the Jets could ill-afford to take their foot off the gas as they faced the proverbial free space on the NHL bingo card. Especially given the fact that they’d previously dropped a pair of precious points in a frustrating 1-0 loss to Arizona back on Nov. 29 at Canada Life Centre.

Rookie goaltender Karel Vejmelka stole the show that night, stopping all 46 shots he faced. And while he wasn’t quite perfect in this latest performance, he proved that he’s no one-hit wonder, at least when it comes to facing a talented Winnipeg team. Vejmelka had 46 more saves this time around. Fortunately for the Jets, they fired 48 pucks his way.

Not too shabby for a guy who doesn’t even have a photograph on his official NHL website bio.

“This is the NHL game. That’s what happens sometimes,” said Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck, who wasn’t nearly as busy as his masked counterpart but stopped 26 of 27 shots at the other end. “A goalie gets hot and a team just has to grind him out, continue and continue to put chances on. Sometimes you have to win this way. Can’t win it 5-4 every night.”

Perhaps you can blame the sloppy, disjointed play in this one to the fact both teams are still working off the pandemic-related rust. This was just the second game in the last 16 nights for the Jets, and the second in 18 nights for the Coyotes.

The lack of arena atmosphere didn’t help either. Although the crowd was officially announced as a paltry 8,173 in a facility that holds 17,125 for hockey, there weren’t even close to that many present. The fact the NBA’s Phoenix Suns were playing a home game at the same time, that the Omicron variant has likely kept many snowbirds north of the border, and that the Coyotes are having a truly horrible season certainly didn’t help the cause.

Still, it’s fair to continue to ask how long Jets 1.0 can keep surviving here in the desert, especially with Arizona without a rink to call home once this season ends. None of that matters to Jets 2.0, who got out of town with exactly what they needed.

Evgeny Svechnikov, playing for the first time in two-and-a-half weeks, finally solved Vejmelka with just over two minutes left in the first period, teeing up a perfect Josh Morrissey pass for his third of the season. Svechnikov suffered a lower-body injury back on Dec. 17 against Washington. He would have missed a lot more than just two games if not for the fact the Jets had five straight postponed prior to returning to action this past weekend.

Svechnikov was inserted on to a new-look fourth line, along with fellow first-rounder Kristian Vesalainen who drew the other helper on his goal. Journeyman centre Dominic Toninato skated between them, and the trio proved to be effective all night long. David Gustafsson came out of the lineup as a result of a lower-body injury he suffered against the Golden Knights Sunday.

“I think, if you look at that goal, it was a battle right at the blue line,” said Lowry. “We had two guys engaged in a battle. We had Ves’ who got in tight and we were able to grab a loose puck and that’s what we’re talking about. It doesn’t matter where we’re playing, we want to make sure that our support is close, it’s tight. And when we do get opportunities, as soon as we turn a puck over, we want our mindset to be we want to go into attack mode and that was the case.”

The Jets doubled their lead with just over five minutes left in the middle frame, right as a power play was expiring. Pierre-Luc Dubois drove hard to the net and beat Vejmelka with a nifty backhand for his 15th of the year. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor had the assists. It was another example of the kind of goal Lowry has been preaching to his troops is necessary to succeed. The Jets have been working hard on crashing the crease — legally — and getting to the dirty areas.

“You look at it statistically, most goals are scored in front of the net. They’re not scored 30 feet from the net, they’re scored within six feet,” said Dubois.

“Tips, digging in front of the net. It’s not always the most fun, but to win you have to do stuff that maybe sometimes isn’t shown on the stats sheet. And being in front of the net, getting crosschecked, battling in front, are all things it takes to win. When we go out there, we have to know what we’re going to expect from ourselves each and every night, even if we’re not feeling our best, we have to go out there and know tonight we’re going to battle in front of the net, we’re going to be close to the net. It has to be part of our identity going forward.”

Dubois’ goal proved to be a big one when Shayne Gostisbehere snapped Hellebuyck’s shutout bid at 6:41 of the third period, intercepting a Logan Stanley pass attempt and walking in to beat the Winnipeg netminder to cut the deficit in half.

Although there were a few close calls from that point on — the Jets were under siege in the waning minutes — they got the saves they needed from Hellebuyck and an empty-net goal from Nikolaj Ehlers to seal the deal.

Winnipeg finished the night going 0-for-4 on the power play, while killing off both minor penalties they took. The club chartered to Denver following the game, where they’ll get a day off today before facing the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg