JETS APPEAR SLUGGISH AGAIN, FALL 3-2 to VISITING UTAH
The Winnipeg Jets are really starting to miss Adam Lowry and Cole Perfetti.
Once again, an anemic offence cost the Jets a game as the red-hot Utah Mammoth came to town, beat the Jets 3-2 and claimed their seventh straight victory.
“We still haven’t put together a 60-minute game," head coach Scott Arniel said following the game. "For me, it’s pieces of the third. I liked a lot of what happened in the first (period), but the second was way too sloppy. Way too easy for the opposition.”
The Jets, meanwhile, just lost two games in a three-game homestand after winning five in a row. This time they looked quite lethargic for the first two periods. Just as they did on Thursday night against Seattle
The Jets are now 6-3-0 to start the season while the first-place Mammoth improved to 8-2-0. Right now, the Jets have only one line – Mark Scheifele, Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor -- that can score consistently and if a team shuts it down, that team has a great chance to beat the Jets.
On this night at Canada Life Centre, the Mammoth allowed the Jets big line to score twice, shut everyone else down and claimed another victory.
“They came as advertised," defenceman Dylan DeMelo said of the Mammoth. "We knew that they have been playing really good hockey. A good up and coming team and every year they seem to get better and better. It was a tight game. It felt like we had some self-inflicted wounds that ended up costing us in the end.”
The first period was a scoreless, pedestrian affair. In fact, it looked a lot like the Jets first period against Seattle on Thursday night, a game that ended with Winnipeg giving up two empty net goals to lose 3-0.
The Jets had a half dozen of scoring chances (on two of them they shot wide) while Utah had none. Winnipeg outshot the Mammoth 8-6, but the fans didn’t rise out of the seats too often.
In the second, the Jets got on the board quickly. Kyle Connor stole the puck in the neutral zone, carried it into the Utah zone, fed Josh Morrissey at the point who passed across to Dylan DeMelo who ripped his first goal of the season, at the 45 second mark, past Utah’s Vitek Vanecek. It was Connor’s seventh assist of the season and Morrissey’s sixth. It was also the 300th assist of Morrissey’s career.
However, on their second d straight power play, the Mammoth tied it, as Nick Schmaltz won a faceoff, got it back to Mikhail Sergachev and he beat Connor Hellebuyck on the short side to tie the game at 10:03.
One minute and four seconds later – on a two-on-one -- Michael Carcone took a pass from Kailer Yamamoto and beat a sprawling Hellebuyck to make it 2-1 Utah. At this stage, the Jets weren’t even in it.
And yet, the Jets tied it on the power-play at 15:09 when Mark Scheifele scored his eighth of the season by whipping a wrister from the slot right between Vanecek’s legs. Morrissey and Gabriel Vilardi drew the assists, and this one was deadlocked after two periods.
The Mammoth outshot Winnipeg 14-7 in the second period and were up 20-15 overall. Frankly, the Jets were fortunate to be even after 40 minutes.
In the first four minutes of the third period, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor missed two glorious scoring opportunities, then during a four-on-four situation eight minutes into the period, Jonathan Toews, Hayden Fleury and Alex Iafallo were all foiled by Vanacek on the same rush. Those missed opportunities would come back to haunt the Jets.
At the 14:24 mark of the period, the Jets Hayden Fleury fell in the corner in his own end, lost the puck to J.J. Peterka, who fed Logan Cooley who fed Dylan Guenther who beat Hellebuyck on the short side once again to score what proved to be the winning goal.
Utah outshot Winnipeg 32-27 on the evening,
Once again, the officiating smelled like betting apps were involved, but it smells like that every night. Especially when Garrett Rank and Corey Syvret call a game. The Jets had two power plays to Utah’s four.
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