Note: The Jets were fresh off being beat down by the Panthers on Friday night to being embarrassed by the back-to-back champs on Saturday evening as they blew a 4-2 lead to the Lightning and left Tampa Bay with a 7-4 defeat. While not yet officially eliminated from the playoffs that is rather imminent. They are off today.
Note II: The Moose continued to do what they do on Saturday which is win at home. They hosted the IceHogs who are a potential first round match up and dominated the game including outshooting their opponent 18-2 in the middle frame. Despite dominating for the first 40 minutes they simply had a 1-0 lead courtesy of Evan Polei who hit a new career high for goals. They took their foot off the gas for a bit in the 3rd which gave Rockford some life before a go ahead goal by Nicholas Jones, which required a review, made it 2-1 followed shortly thereafter by Jeff Malott‘s 23rd of the season which proved to be the game-winning goal after a late goal by the visitors made the score/game seem closer than it really was. Manitoba improves to 38-21-5-2 on the season and an impressive 23-7-0-2 at home. These two teams will meet again this afternoon at 2 PM.
Note III: While yesterday’s AHL game was being played in Winnipeg the Jets announced the signing of Wyatt Bongiovanni out of Quinnipiac University to a two-year ELC. The Michigan product has signed an Amateur Tryout Offer to start his career in pro hockey with the Moose.
Jets news:
Sportsnet: As lost Jets campaign nears end, process of repairing winning culture must begin now. But why now? Why after game 76 will this team suddenly realize that now is the time to develop a winning culture? Seems too little too late for that.
Winnipeg Sun: Sunshine State stumble leaves Jets’ playoff hopes on life support. After beating up on a pair of weaker clubs in the Senators and Canadiens last week the Jets learned a lesson in being the small kid in the sandbox as they got tuned by Florida and Tampa this weekend.
Winnipeg Free Press: Jets served painful reality check with 7-4 loss to Lightning. (Paywall). This felt a lot like the back-to-back game against the Leafs when the Jets had nothing left in the tank as the game played out and were outpaced by their opponent.
Tampa Bay Times: Lightning reach 100-point mark with win over Jets. The defending champs still have a pretty, pretty, pretty formidable team. Check out this recap from a writer that covers the Jets opponent.
The Athletic Winnipeg: Jets’ gap with playoff quality teams is clear. So what does coaching have to do with it? (Paywall). Murat delves deep into a topic that has been the focus of fans throughout the course of this season.
Photo Credit: Alexander James (Illegal Curve)
Jets video/audio:
Illegal Curve Hockey Show: Saturday Podcast. On yesterday’s show we discussed the Jets and Panthers game and the comments made by Nikolaj Ehlers, whether it is time for a youth movement from the Moose for rest of this season, what the summer could hold for Winnipeg and the abundance of defencemen in the organization and the logjam it is creating. Joining the show was Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press and Brian Engblom, color analyst for the Lightning, on Sun Sports.
Moose news:
Illegal Curve: Moose dominate for most of the game and win it 3-2 over the IceHogs. Get the full 411 from yesterday’s contest including a look at the lines, some notable game facts, post-game media avails and what comes next.
Full Press Hockey: Antler Analysis. In his latest piece Jacob takes a look at the Moose goaltending, new prospect Morgan Barron and 2017 1st rounder Kristian Vesalainen.
