Game 66: Jets 3 Rangers 0 post-game report

The Jets are now 40-17-9 with the 3-0 win over the Rangers in their second game of this six-game road trip.

For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats here are the results from tonight’s game via Natural Stat Trick.

Notable:

1st
– The Jets had a lot of sustained pressure on the Rangers but couldn’t beat Lundqvist;
– A scare mid period as Laine laboured to the bench followed by Wheeler and Scheifele colliding (all were fine);
– The Jets used some voodoo to keep a Matts Zuccarello attempt out of the net to keep it scoreless;
– As period wound down Dustin Byfuglien made a calculated pinch, intercepted a puck in the NY zone, dropped it to Paul Stastny who fed it to Patrik Laine who beat Lundqvist to open the scoring for Winnipeg;
– It was Laine’s 36th goal of the season which tied his rookie record (in seven less games);
– Assists to Stastny and Byfuglien;
– Jets out shot the Rangers 16-9 after 20 minutes.

2nd
– It was a slow start to the middle frame;
– Patrik Laine scored his second of the game to make it 2-0;
– Sets a new career high in goals with 37;
– Assists to Chiarot and Morrow;
– Wasn’t all good news for the Jets as Mark Scheifele left the game after sustaining multiple hits to the shoulders;
– Jets ended middle frame up 2-0 and led in shots 28-19.

2nd intermission
– Jets announced that Mark Scheifele would not return to the game due to an upper body injury.

3rd
– Not much happened in the final frame;
– With the net empty Patrik Laine fired it the length of the ice and picked up the hat trick.

Numbers:

– Patrik Laine scored three goals (36, 37, 38);
– Set a new career high for Laine with 38 goals;
– Third game in a row that Laine has scored at least two goals in a game;
– Has 13 goals in his last nine games;
– Stastny has five points in the four games with the Jets;
– Blake Wheeler continues to pick up the assists as he added his 57th of the season on Laine’s hat trick goal;
– Steve Mason improves to 4-6-1 on the season as he picks up his first win since January 9th (his last NHL game);
– Mason also got his first shutout of the season making 31 saves.

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Patrik Laine

Steve Mason

Coach Maurice:  On Laine’s goal in the 1st really giving the Jets the edge.  Status of Mark Scheifele?  Was it related to the collision with Wheeler?  Any concern leaving him in after it?  On Steve Mason’s return to the net.  Chiarot helping his goalie.  Getting production from 3rd pairing D.  On Stastny adapting.

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Update on Mark Scheifele:

Despite the good feelings with the Jets winning their third game in a row the team lost top centre Mark Scheifele in the 2nd period.  After the game coach Maurice was asked about whether he had any news about 55 to which he indicated “Nothing really.  We’ll see tomorrow, we’re hopeful.  It has nothing to do with his previous injury, so that’s the positive.  We’ll have a really good idea tomorrow.”  When asked if it was related to the collision with Blake Wheeler the Jets bench boss confirmed it was “Directly.  It was right from there.”.  When asked if there was any concern leaving him in the game but said “as soon as he felt like was starting to stiffen up we got him out of there.”  The Jets are off tomorrow so we may not know the status of 55 until Thursday.