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Jets confident in ability to regroup after off-night for top guns vs. Oilers – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

March 19, 2021

WINNIPEG — It had the makings of a temporary fix, a shot in the arm to start the longest road trip of this compressed regular season.

Sure, it’s only mid-March and there are 26 games left on the schedule — including this stretch of seven games over 12 days — but there was some buzz surrounding this two-game series between the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers.

After all, by the time the horn sounded at the end of the contest, one of the two teams would find themselves on equal footing with the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, at least in terms of points.

On a night that was mostly the opposite of the high-octane pace folks have come to expect when the Jets and Oilers get together, Connor McDavid was the difference-maker, supplying both goals in a 2-1 victory Thursday night.

“I’d like to have those. But at the same time, you can ask any goalie, that’s one of the tougher spots to stop,” said Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit, who made 19 saves but had his personal four-game winning streak snapped. “It’s pretty obvious you don’t want to give him any time and space. When he does have it, he’s a pure goal scorer. He picked a good shot, a good spot. He’s got a deceptive release. I mean, you can compliment him all you want, it’s almost unnecessary. We all know it.”

As for the Jets’ top guns, nothing came easy.

Paul Stastny and Kyle Connor rattled shots off the iron and one of the best scoring opportunities came late as Mark Scheifele nearly sent the game to overtime with goalie Brossoit on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

But the pass to Scheifele in front changed direction off the skate of Oilers forward Josh Archibald and skipped over his stick and he was unable to bat the puck out of the air.

That’s just the type of night it was.

“Obviously, we’re paid to produce. All of our lines had some chances. We wish we would have had more or capitalized on them when we had the chance,” said Scheifele, who survived a scare when he blocked a shot with his right foot/ankle late in the first period, declaring “it’s fine” during his post-game media session. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. You can’t get them every night, so we have to regroup and be ready for the next one.”

The Jets have made regrouping an art form this season, showing resolve at almost every turn.

After losing for the second time in three games and escaping overtime in the other, the Jets find themselves in familiar territory, looking to remain among the two teams in the NHL (the Florida Panthers are the other) that has yet to lose consecutive games in regulation this season.

They’re 8-0-1 coming in that scenario and will put that record on the line in Saturday’s rematch against an Oilers team that has shown plenty of its own, going 6-2 since getting swept by the Maple Leafs.

The Jets are the only team in the North to avoid a full-fledged crisis so far and they’re determined to keep it that way.

“We’re a confident group. We lose one, we just put it behind us and focus on the next one,” said Mathieu Perreault. “We’ve got a great group of guys. We’re playing well. That’s just kind of the mentality we’ve had and we’ve been able to bounce back pretty much every time we’ve lost so far this year.”

After coughing up a two-goal lead in the third period against the Montreal Canadiens one night earlier before rallying to win in overtime, the Jets mostly clamped down defensively, limiting the Oilers to only 21 shots on goal — and only three high-danger opportunities at 5-on-5 play.

Tightening up collectively in the defensive zone is the top priority for the Jets in the second half — and with the exception of the third period on Wednesday night — they’ve mostly been able to accomplish that goal in recent efforts.

Sure, there were the three self-inflicted wounds and costly turnovers in Monday’s defeat, but the Jets have kept the shot volume down to a manageable level in three of the past four outings.

Sticking to that style is going to be essential as things ramp up.

“We’ve been playing a pretty good style in trying to be real careful about what we’re giving up,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “We had the turnovers against Montreal but other than that, our last four we have been pretty darn good with it.”

Surviving this stretch run comes down to a formula that’s easier to identify than it often is to execute.

“Health is going to be No. 1, in truth, and it’s one of those tough ones that you have a difficult time controlling,” said Maurice. “When you look at all of the schedules now, 17 games (in March), a number of four-game weeks stacked up. The team that can stay the healthiest, No. 1, then recover the best is most important. No. 2 would be being able to mentally, then, do the exact same thing, not get in or out of a rhythm too high or too low.

“Certainly too low is the danger here and being able to rejuvenate yourself mentally. The physical part, we’ll try to get them a rest, but trying to stay positive when your game … because you’re going to have ups and downs and it’s going to be very intense and very competitive and in the North, it’ll be very scrutinized, so all the pressure you can imagine is there.”

With both teams in the midst of a taxing portion of the schedule and playing on consecutive nights, offence was simply tough to generate on Thursday, especially for the Jets — whose lone goal came off the stick of a rejuvenated Perreault.

Perreault, who was placed on waivers prior to the season to help create a larger LTIR pool, is up to seven goals on the season, eclipsing his total from 2019-20 — when he was limited to 49 games because of injury.

The Jets’ best line was its fourth unit, which has been a topic for much of the time since Maurice took over from Claude Noel in January of 2014.

Over the course of time, the Jets have used a blend of youth and experience.

This year, at least when healthy, Maurice has leaned mostly on the veteran trio of Nate Thompson between two-time Stanley Cup champion Trevor Lewis and Perreault.

“It’s all based on role definition,” said Maurice, asked how difficult it is to integrate veteran players at a time when youth is often served. “When you sign a veteran guy or when you trade for a veteran guy, is the hole that you have for him to play what he expected? As long as those lines are clear, then those guys are great.

“But the most important piece is that when you’re making that deal or you’re having those conversations and a lot of times it’s in the summer, that it’s really clear about what you’re being brought in to do because if you bring in a guy and say I’ve got you in the two-hole on the left side and then he’s playing in the four-hole because you’ve got other players ahead of him, that’s where veteran guys — they’re more aware of how much time is on their clock. And they all want to win and they all want to play, so wasting a year or not being where they thought would be — and that’s not performance-based — it’s just, they didn’t get what we promised them. Then you can have a problem. We’ve been really good about bringing those guys in and them understanding what the role and the job was and then accepting it.”

There aren’t a lot of nights when the fourth line is asked to play 10-plus minutes a night, but they don’t have to constantly be sheltered with offensive-zone starts either.

Earlier this week, Maurice sent them out to protect a one-goal lead with fewer than three minutes to go in regulation.

The move may have raised a few eyebrows, but it also served a greater purpose — both as a reward and also as recognition for doing the little things right.

“So, one of the things that you notice is that our shift length has gotten a lot better from the start of the year, because now they have respect for that fourth line. It’s their turn to go,” Maurice said recently. “I know that’s a small thing, but it’s not because it makes your whole game better. The respect for the other players on the ice.”

Finding a mix he can rely on to play somewhere in the neighbourhood of seven to 10 minutes has been challenging for Maurice, but due to the frenetic pace during the final 10 weeks of the campaign, no team can survive without getting a contribution from the fourth unit.

“This is what we want. We want to be out there and have a chance to make a difference every night,” said Perreault. “And like I said earlier, we’re three responsible guys in our own end. We want Paul (Maurice) to have that trust in us to put us out there late in games to get the job done. So we were glad to see we got that time and hopefully we can get more of that.”

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

16 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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