Lowry, Morrissey, Scheifele, Comrie Lead Jets past jackets
You could say it was surgical.
Captain Adam Lowry scored his first goal of the season, leading scorer Mark Scheifele had three assists, Eric Comrie picked up his fourth win and the Winnipeg Jets won every statistical category that mattered as they pounded the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 on Tuesday night.
It was Filipino Heritage Night at Canada Life Centre and the crowd was treated to one of the best performances by the Jets this season. In fact, there was absolutely nothing to criticize. The Jets simply did everything well and were rewarded with a convincing victory.
“It’s nice, since I’ve been back, to get the first one at home,” said Lowry. “Offensively we were better tonight, but for us it starts in our end and the defence did a great job.”
The Jets opened the scoring at 7:35 of the first period when Lowry took a slick pass from Nino Niederreiter and drilled a shot past Blue Jackets’ netminder Elvis Merzlikins from just outside the crease. It was Lowry’s first of the year in just his seventh game of the season since returning from hop surgery. Niederreiter and Neal Pionk picked up the assists.
Columbus tied it at 18:27 of the opening frame when Brandon-born Damon Severson flipped the puck out of his own zone and Miles Wood outskated Dylan DeMelo for the puck, went in alone on Comrie and beat the Jets goaltender through the five-hole. Goalie Merzlikins picked up the other assist, his first point of the season and the sixth point of his seven-year NHL career.
The teams went to the intermission tied at one. Both teams had 11 shots on goal.
In the second period, Winnipeg took the lead at 1:12 as Mark Scheifele was sent away by Kyle Connor, streaked down the right wing and fired a hard pass across the Columbus crease right onto the stick of Josh Morrissey who tapped it into the wide-open net. It was Morrissey’s fourth goal of the season while Scheifele picked up his 14th assist while Connor garnered his 13th.
Morrissey scores (Photo by Scott Stroh)
The Jets went ahead 3-1 on the power play at 15:30 of the second period as Neal Pionk took a pass from Gustav Nyquist and fired a laser from 35-feet out that Merzlikins did not see. It was Pionk’s first of the season as Nyquist and Niederreiter picked up the helpers.
The Jets outshot Columbus 8-4 in the second period (19-15 overall) and were much the better team in what was a rather pedestrian 20 minutes of hockey.
However, in the third period, the action got hot and heavy early.
Winnipeg made it 4-1 at 2:45 when Scheifele fed a pass to Connor at the Columbus blueline and Connor went wide on Blue Jackets defenceman Dante Fabbro. Almost at the goal-line and at an odd angle, Connor ripped a high-shot off the mask of Merzlikins and under the bar on the short side. It was Connor’s 11th of the year as Scheifele picked up his 15th assist of the year and Morrissey recorded his 17th.
Columbus made it 4-2 on a goal by Zach Werenski at 4:04 and then Logan Stanley restored the three-goal Jets’ lead with a blistering slapshot high to the glove side of the Jackets’ netminder at 6:23. Scheifele picked up his third assist of the night while Luke Shenn was credited with his second assist and second point of the season.
From that point on, the Jets played shut-down D, won most of the battles in the dirty parts of the rink and let Comrie pick up his fourth win in five starts this season. It was as close to a perfect hockey game as the Jets could play.
Scheifele has three assists (Photo by Scott Stroh)
The three stars were 1. Schiefele, 2. Lowry and 3. Morrissey. Pretty simple choices. Winnipeg outshot Columbus 30-22 (11-7 in the third), outhit the Jackets 14-12 and won 56.5 percent of the faceoffs.
The 12-7-0 Jets play again on Friday night as Seth Jarvis and the Carolina Hurricanes come to town for a 7 p.m. start.
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