Trotz Earns 900th Win, Islanders Get Two from Bailey, Whip Jets 5-2 on Long Island

The Winnipeg Jets ran into a better hockey team on Friday night. The result was predictable. Josh Bailey scored a pair of goals while Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist and Dauphin, Manitoba's own Barry Trotz picked up his 900th career win as a coach -- third best all-time -- as the New York Islanders whipped the visiting Winnipeg Jets 5-2. It was a game that shouldn't have been as close as it was at one point. In fact, despite being outshot 22-15 at the time, Blake Wheeler scored for the Jets at the 20-second mark of the third period to bring the Jets to within a goal, at 3-2. But the Islanders put it away less than seven minutes later when Bailey scored his second of the night. Cal Clutterbuck fired a shot from well inside his own end into an empty net to make the final 5-2 as the Islanders won their second straight at home and the Jets short two-game winning streak came to a crashing halt. The Jets are now 26-23-10 on the season. It was another tough night for Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck. He stopped 34 shots, but gave up four once again. The loss wasn't his fault. It's simply that he's not the same goaltender that won the Vezina Trophy two seasons ago. “This guy battles and competes," said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. "We’re not worried about him at all. We have to do a better job in front of him, and make his job easier.” Nelson opened the scoring for the Islanders on the power play at 6:38 of the first period, beating Hellebuyck with a brilliant shot to the very short side, under the bar. It was Nelson's 23rd of the year. The Jets tied it at 16:58 of the first period when Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor were spring on a two-on-nothing breakaway bu Neal Pionk. Ehlers feathered a beautiful pass to Connor with Isles goaltender Semyon Varlamov out of position and Connor one-timed it home for his 36th goal of the season. But that's the last time the Islanders would not have the lead. Bailey scored his fifth of the year at 1:08 of the second period to make it 2-1 and then Anders Lee tallied his 20th just 40 seconds later to make it 3-1 and the Islanders were on their way. Wheeler, from Paul Stastny and Dylan DeMelo cut the lead to 3-2, but Bailey scored his sixth at 7:14 and then Clutterbuck hit the empty net at 15:16 for his sixth of the season. That made it 5-2 and that's all she wrote. The Jets were hardly in this one. They were outshot 38-29 and outshot in every period -- 11-6, 11-9 and 16-14. The Islanders also won 56 per cent of the face-offs. The Jets outhit New York 28-15. The Islanders went one-for-four on the power play while the Jets didn't have a power play all night. The Islanders only had one penalty all night and it created a four-on-four situation. If the Islanders, who had six shots on the power play, hadn't been the better team, this game would have seemed very fishy. The Islanders had all three stars, but the Jets with the best line was DeMelo. He had an assist and was plus one with three shots, two hits and three blocked shots in 22 minutes and 42 seconds of ice time. The Jets play again on Sunday when they face the Blues in St. Louis at 6 p.m. CST on TSN3.