Closing out a three-game road trip, the Jets travelled to Utah for the second time this season and suffered the same end result as their first road meeting against the Hockey Club. Scott Arniel didn’t call this performance “embarrassing” as he did after the Jets’ 5-2 loss to Utah on January 20th, but there were still plenty of negatives to take away from this one.
Jets come out flat in Utah
On Thursday, Winnipeg jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Vegas in one of their better first periods of the season.
That flipped on Saturday night, as the Jets played one of their worst first periods of the season, lucky to be down only 1-0 with Connor Hellebuyck making a handful of big saves.
After 40 minutes, it was a 3-0 deficit.
“(We were) not very good for two periods,” Scott Arniel said after the game. Utah was the better team, dominated us in all areas. Puck battles, turnovers, they got their rush game going, we knew they were gonna be good in that department.”
Nikolaj Ehlers blocked a shot late in the Vegas game on Thursday night, and was labelled a game-time decision for this game, but was ultimately unable to suit up. The Jets missed Ehlers’ speed and dynamic offensive ability against the fast and dangerous Utah HC.
“We weren’t ready to go,” Arniel said. “We dominated the third period, but it was a ‘buck short and a day late’.”
Mark Scheifele was the lone goal scorer for the Jets, his 38th goal of the season, and the 800th point of his career. As pointed out by Dave Minuk on Twitter, he becomes the first 2.0 Jet to reach 800 points, as Blake Wheeler finished with 795 points in a Jets uniform.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Scheifele trails only Thomas Steen (817) and Dale Hawerchuk (929) on the All-Time points list in a Winnipeg NHL uniform.
Jets miss a big opportunity with Dallas loss
This loss was a missed opportunity for the Jets, as the Dallas Stars lost on home ice earlier in the day to the Pittsburgh Penguins, opening the door for Winnipeg to potentially take a six-point lead on the Stars in the standings.
When asked if tonight was a missed opportunity, Arniel said: “Yeah for sure it is. We’ve talked about it for the past 3-to-4 weeks, we’re not waiting for some other team to beat Dallas, we can’t sit and do that, we need to go and take care of our business. If we’re going to go out and win this division, win it by winning hockey games.”
MoneyPuck now gives the Jets a 77.2% chance to finish as the top team in the Central Division, a percentage that went up despite the Jets’ loss today, as the Dallas loss was good news regardless of how Winnipeg’s game played out.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
A win today for Winnipeg would have put them over an 80% likelihood, which is why this loss may feel bigger than simply a road loss to a non-playoff team.
“We had the door open there with the Dallas game earlier, to really put a stranglehold on it, and we shot ourselves in the foot,” Perfetti said. “We would’ve liked to have this effort back, and we’ve gotta get ready for Monday and a strong St. Louis team coming into our building.”
Huge week coming up
The Jets now have one of the most important regular season weeks of their existence coming up, as they look to secure their first-ever Central Division title with just five games remaining in the season.
With a 77.2% chance to win the division, they’ll now welcome the St. Louis Blues to town on Monday night, who have won 12 straight games.
Then on Thursday, April 10, the Jets will travel to take on the Dallas Stars for a game that will play a massive role in deciding how the standings look heading into round one of the playoffs.
Buckle up for a huge week of action, and stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com, for the latest news and notes for the Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose this week.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login