WINNIPEG – The fans in Winnipeg waited 19 yrs for the return of an NHL playoff game and finally got their wish as the Jets were back for Game Three and the crowd did not disappoint as the return of the white-outs something special to see as the loudest fans in the league did not disappoint.
The Ducks, who had a 2-0 lead in the series, had other ideas and sent 15016 fans home crying as they handed the Jets a 5-4 overtime loss to take a commanding three games to none lead in the series.
It was the same story as the first two games; the Jets had a lead going into the third and gave up a late goal.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it,” the Jets Bryan Little said. “If we knew what it was, we’d fix it. You’ve got to give them credit, they don’t stop. They go right to the end of the game. It almost gets in your head how good they are at it. They’ve done it to us three [games] in a row now. A couple bounces either way tonight and we could’ve had a different outcome.”
They have had six leads in the series but have nothing to show for it. This one will be tough to swallow as just before the Ducks scored the Jets had a couple of glorious scoring chances.
Ondrej Pavelec stopped 26 out of 31 Anaheim shots.
Frederik Anderson who has never lost to the Jets stopped 31 out of 35 Jets shots.
Winnipeg got goals from Lee Stempniak, Tyler Myers, Blake Wheeler, Little all four got there first goals of the series.
Ducks got goals from Cam Fowler his 1st, Corey Perry his 3rd, Jakob Silfverberg his 2nd, Ryan Kesler his 1st.
Rickard Rakell scored the OT winner, his 1st of the playoffs
“We needed it tonight. A third-line guy scoring the winning goal, and you get Silfverberg, Cogliano and Kesler getting in, because I didn’t think the Getzlaf line was as good as they were in the first two games,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “If you don’t get that secondary scoring, you’re not going to win any games.”
The black and blue series as its been dubbed by the media continued its hard hitting ways as the two teams combined for 105 hits with the Jets having the edge 61 to 44. Both teams were dishing out punishing checks one after another. The Jets will look to last year’s champs as they were down 3-0 in the first round and battled back all the way to the Cup.
“You’ve got to make them win four games, so we’re sure not going to go down easy,” Wheeler said. “You’ve got to win four games. We have won four in a row before. The first one’s going to be the hardest one, apparently. Just lick our wounds tonight. It’s going to hurt, obviously. The sun’s going to rise tomorrow, and we’ve got to refocus for Game 4.”
One thing for sure the Jets have served notice as they could be up 3-0 right now and will try and get the franchise’s first playoff win on wed night in game 4 and send this series back to California.
“[It will be] the hardest-fought game yet,” Kesler said. “The fourth [win] is the hardest. As heartbreaking as that was for them to lose in overtime in that fashion, I think that both teams are going to regroup and forget about [this] one and play hard for the fourth one.”
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