JETS, Islanders combine for seven goals in second period
OK, now it’s official. The Winnipeg Jets are on a winning streak.
Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre in front of 14,114, the Jets got goals from five different players – including two defencemen – as they beat the visiting New York Islanders 5-4.
It was Winnipeg’s third straight win as the Jets improved to 18-22-5. They’ve pulled to within seven points of the final playoff spot in the West.
Tuesday night’s affair was like three different games. The Jets jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Islanders then scored three goals in less than three minutes to tie the game. And then the Jets won the third “game” 2-1. The fans certainly got their money’s worth. The two teams combined for seven goals in the second period.
Emil Heineman scores on a penalty shot (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
The Jets opened the scoring at 4:20 of the first period when Kyle Connor lifted the stick of the Islanders Mathew Barzal, stole the puck right in front of the net and stuffed it past New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin. Mark Scheifele, who dished out his 500th career assist, and Alex Iafallo drew the helpers
The rest of the period belonged to the goaltenders. The Jets outshot the Islanders 9-7 but both Sorokin and Hellebuyck were solid.
In the second period, it appeared as it the Jets had taken control.
First, at 5:41, Josh Morrissey fired a wrist shot from 30-feet out that eluded Sorokin on his stick side. Cole Perfetti and Adam Lowry, who were in front of the net making life difficult for Sorokin got the assists.
Then at 6:23 on the power play, Jonathan Toews banged home the rebound off Gabriel Vilardi’s shot and the Jets had a 3-0 advantage. Kyle Connor picked up his 32nd assist of the season on Toews sixth goal. Toews has now scored in three consecutive games for the Jets.
However, the Islanders didn’t give in. Anthony Duclair scored his eighth of the season at 7:40 and then Emil Heineman was given a penalty shot (pretty chintzy hooking call on Luke Schenn) at 8:58 and made no mistake as New York cut the Jets advantage to 3-2.
The Islanders tied it at 10:21 as Kyle MacLean ripped a wrist shot under the bar to record his second goal of the season. In less than three minutes the visitors had erased a 3-0 deficit.
But the Jets bounced back. Scheifele did a great job digging the puck out of the Islanders corner and fed it to Dylan DeMelo who blasted a shot into the corner of the Islanders’ net with Nino Neiderreiter in perfect position in front of Sorokin. The Islanders challenged, but there was clearly no interference on the netminder, and the Jets had a 4-3 lead at 12:23.
DeMelo scores as Niederreiter screens Sorokin (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
Then, at 19:40, the Jets finished the period with a bit of a flukey goal. Neal Pionk wristed a floater from the point that hit Adam Lowry in front and eluded a startled Sorokin. It was Lowry’s fourth of the year and Winnipeg suddenly took a 5-3 advantage into the second intermission.
The Jets outshot the Islanders 11-8 in the second (20-15 after 40 minutes) but amazingly, had lost 58.3 per cent of the faceoffs.
The Jets played shutdown for much of the third period, but with their net empty and just 45 seconds remaining New York’s Anders Lee fired one under the bar, just over Hellebuyck’s shoulder, and suddenly it was 5-4.
But the Jets hung on down the stretch and won their third straight game.
The Islanders outshot Winnipeg 12-2 in the third period and 27-22 overall. The Islanders won 55.6 per cent of the faceoffs while Winnipeg outhit New York 18-13.
Isles D-man Ryan Pulock from Grandview checks Jets captain Adam Lowry (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
The three stars were 1. Adam Lowry, 2. Dylan DeMelo and 3. Emil Heineman. Someone didn’t notice that Jonathan Toews had his best game as a member of the Jets.
The Jets completed their three-game homestand with a record of 3-1-1 and will head out onto the road and play one game in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday night before returning to Winnipeg to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at Canada Life Centre. Game time is 6 p.m.
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