After failing to find enough goals to win many games for close to two months, especially from depth players, the Winnipeg Jets are suddenly flush with offence.
Their latest outburst came in a 5-4 win over the visiting New York Islanders Tuesday night, giving the Jets their first three-game win streak in almost two and a half months.
The Jets wasted a three-goal lead as the Isles scored three times in less than three minutes in the second stanza, but the Jets took the lead back near the end of the frame and never relinquished it.
“Obviously getting up three-nothing and then kinda giving it right back obviously sucked,” said Jets forward Mark Scheifele. “But the response after that was awesome by everyone, so a win is a win.”
It was a wild second period with the two teams combining to score seven goals.
“A bit of a roller coaster for sure,” said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “Feeling good and then they pop in a couple pretty quick and then it’s like oh, oh, here we go. But we settled in and we just said go after them again, get back to what we were doing and get on the forecheck and that’s exactly what happened on that goal.”
It’s their first three-game win streak since Nov. 1.
Jonathan Toews is heating up as he scored for the third straight game. DeMelo, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, and Adam Lowry had the other Jets’ markers. Scheifele had a gloved in goal disallowed but recorded his 500th career assist in the win.
The Jets had lost their last 13 one-goal games before picking up back-to-back one goal victories.
The Jets have the scored the first goal in seven straight games now and are finally getting offensive contributions from up and down the lineup.
“It means a lot,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “Now every line is dangerous and makes it for the opposition as well. They just can’t sorta zero in just on Schife’s line and I think that you can see guys making plays now, feeling more confident with the puck. And when you do that, you play a more of a puck possession game.”
Winnipeg opened the scoring just 4:20 into the game thanks to their top line. They cycled the puck around the Islanders end before Scheifele sent a puck on goal from the point. It was touched en route to the net by Alex Iafallo and stopped by Ilya Sorokin but Connor won the race to the rebound and tucked it home for his 22nd of the season.
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Right as Connor was scoring, Islanders rookie blueliner Matthew Schaefer took a stick to the midsection as he collided in the slot with Morrissey. He spent a minute or so down on the ice before getting up and initially went to the bench before heading to the locker room. He would return to the bench with 3:49 left in the first.
While he was absent, the Islanders got the first power play of the game thanks to a questionable hooking call on Morrissey. New York did nothing with it and Winnipeg entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.
The Jets outshot the Islanders 9-7 in the first.
Winnipeg extended their lead at the 5:41 mark of the second. After the second line carried the puck into the Islanders’ end, Cole Perfetti tried to centre the puck to Gabriel Vilardi, which created a scramble in front of Sorokin. The puck eventually squirted out to Morrissey, who circled back to the slot, turned and fired a shot that eluded Sorokin for his eighth of the season.
Off the ensuing faceoff at centre ice, Scott Mayfield was called for tripping, sending the Jets to their first power play of the night and they took full advantage, thanks to a bit of a lucky break.
Connor sent a cross-ice pass to Vilardi for a one-timer. His shot deflected off an Islanders stick and into the body of Toews at the side of the net. The puck dropped straight down into the crease before Toews banged it home for his third goal in as many games.
Things appeared to be going swimmingly at this point for the Jets, but that was about to drastically change as the Islanders would score three times in 2:41 to draw even.
The first came after Ryan Pulock barely kept the puck in at the Winnipeg blue line but it was close enough that Winnipeg’s forwards flew the zone. The puck went down low to Andres Lee, who spotted an open Anthony Duclair at the faceoff dot. He took a pass and whipped a shot that snuck through Connor Hellebuyck to get the Islanders on the board at the 7:40 mark.
Just over a minute later, Emil Heineman got free behind the Jets defence and took a stretch pass that sprung him on a breakaway. As he got a shot off that hit the crossbar, he was slashed by Luke Schenn, gifting Heineman a penalty shot.
He made no mistake, putting a nice shoulder fake on Hellebuyck before roofing a backhand to make it 3-2 at the 8:58 mark.
Then at the 10:21 mark, New York drew level thanks to another defensive breakdown by the Jets. Neal Pionk was stripped of the puck in the corner by Casey Cizikas, who took it behind the net before spotting a wide-open Kyle MacLean in the slot. MacLean held it for a split-second before snapping a shot past Hellebuyck.
But the Jets answered back just over two minutes later. Winnipeg won the puck out of a scrum in the corner of the Islanders’ end before Scheifele found DeMelo at the point. His shot eluded Sorokin to make it 4-3 with his third of the season. Scheifele also picked up his 500th assist on the play.
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy unsuccessfully challenged the goal, thinking there was goaltender interference even though there really was no justification for the challenge.
He got away with it, though, as Winnipeg failed to score on the power play…legally. Scheifele batted a loose puck into the net with his glove, which was initially called a good goal but was waved off after a quick discussion between officials.
The Jets restored their two-goal lead with just 20 seconds left in the second when a Pionk point shot glanced off the body of Adam Lowry and past Sorokin, his fourth of the season that put the cherry on top of a chaotic period that featured a total of seven goals on 19 shots.
As wild as the second period was, things settled down in the third as neither team was able to generate a whole lot, though each goalie had to make one or two solid saves.
Sorokin left the ice for an extra attacker with just over three minutes left with the Islanders still down by two. Winnipeg had a couple chances to ice the game into the empty net but failed, leading to Schaefer beating Hellebuyck with a seeing-eye wrister with 45 seconds remaining.
But that’s as close as the Islanders would get as the Jets closed the book on a third straight win, a span in which they have now scored 14 goals.
The Jets will now embark on a quick one-game road trip in Minnesota, facing the Wild Thursday night at 7 p.m. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB will begin just after 5 p.m.
