Jets Solid Road Trip Goes Thud With 3-1 Loss to Hawks at Home

The Winnipeg Jets appeared to be a team gearing up for a playoff run after a very good two-game road trip to Dallas and Nashville on the weekend. However, on a cold Monday night in downtown Winnipeg, that solid road trip was long forgotten as the Jets could muster little or no offence and was upset 3-1 by the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks, a team with a .427 percentage, arrived in Winnipeg seven points behind the Jets in the Central Division standings. But the Hawks scored on the few opportunities they had while the Jets failed to score on the many opportunities they had. The Jets outshot Chicago 32-24 and the Hawks only had half-a-dozen decent chances to score, but as Winnipeg has done so many times this season, they outshot their opponents by a wide margin and still lost. With the loss, the Jets fell to 20-18-8 on the season and their hopes of reaching the post-season took another nasty hit. Sadly, Winnipeg had plenty of chances to put this game away. In the second period, the Jets best chance (of many) to score came at about the four minute mark when Adam Lowry, shorthanded, created a turnover at his own blue line and went in alone on Hawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury decided to throw caution to the wind and threw his stick at the puck, breaking up Lowry's move to the backhand. Fortunately for the goalie, because NHL officials (in this case Wes McAuley and Kevin Pollock) either don't know the rules or don't care about them, he was not handed the automatic penalty (and resulting penalty shot) that should have been called. NHL Rulebook: "... award a penalty shot if the stick or other object is thrown or shot at the puck or the puck carrier in the defending zone, preventing a reasonable shot or pass. This shot shall be taken by the player designated by the Referee as the player fouled." So much for actual rules or legitimate officiating in the NHL. The Blackhawks finally opened the scoring at 10:21 when Patrick Kane tallied his 12th season, beating Connor Hellebuyck through the five hole off a rush. The Jets finally got on the board at 6:17 of the third period when Mark Scheifele scored his 14th of the season, banging home a deflected shot off the stick of Nate Schmidt that was sitting right at the corner of Fleury's crease. Ville Heinola also drew an assist. However, the Hawks came right back and took the lead as Alex DeBrincat was allowed to cross the Jets blue line unimpeded and then allowed to shoot unimpeded and he took advantage of the situation by rifling a high wrist shot over Hellebuyck's shoulder, on the stick side. It was DeBrincat's 28th of the season at 9:42 and it was unassisted. With just about two-and-a-half-minutes to play, the Jets pulled Hellebuyck for a sixth attacker and dominated the Hawks zone for almost 90 seconds. However, they couldn't get a decent, open shot at Fleury. Eventually, Chicago cleared the puck and Brandon Hagel was allowed to skate in alone on the empty net and buried a shot to make it 3-1 Hawks. Kane and Fleury drew the assists as Chicago won its 18th game of the year. The Jets not only outshot Chicago, they won 61 per cent of the face-offs and outhit the Hawks 23-20. Both teams had one power play opportunity and both teams failed to score. The Jets had a better chance to score shorthanded than they did on their only power play. Winnipeg will play again Wednesday night as the red-hot Minnesota Wild come to town. Game time at Canada Life Centre is 7:00 p.m.