SUNRISE Fla – The Jets were coming off a very emotional game in Tampa where they saw their coach get ejected and they lost center Bryan Little to an upper body injury but they did manage to battle back and get a point . Saturday night they faced one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Florida Panthers. The Jets did play a solid game but couldn’t muster up much as they lost 3-1.
Jaromir Jagr scored twice to move past Hull in win over Jets – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Panthers were led by the ageless wonder, Jaromir Jagr, who just recently turned 44-years old and continues to astonish everyone by being one of the top players as he leads the Panthers in scoring.
“It’s awesome for him to score those two goals and go ahead of Brett Hull,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “It’s unbelievable. He had great chances and great jump to his legs. We were happy to see that. We were hoping to get him that hat trick, but it just didn’t happen.”
He notched a pair of goals, his 19th and 20th of the season. He also moved past Brett Hull with career goals 741 and 742 and now sits alone in third place all time behind only Gordie Howe (801) and Wayne Gretzky (894).
“It’s great, but I don’t really think about it, to be honest with you,” Jagr said. “I don’t feel like I played really well for a few games, so I wanted to make sure I play a little bit better today. I had a little more jump, so it was pretty good.”
Roberto Luongo stopped 30 shots in the Panthers net after sitting out the previous two games to get some rest.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re following the play well and you’re on top of it,” Luongo said. “Tonight was one of those games where my body was going toward the puck. That’s what I’ve been trying to do all week, and I’m happy I was able to come through with a couple of big saves in the second and the boys rewarded me in the third.”
Reilly Smith scored his 19th of the season a power play marker that was the go ahead goal and the game winner for Florida.
Andrew Ladd scored the lone Jets goal his 16th of the season on the power play after tipping in a Dustin Byfuglien point shot.
“We had a bunch (of chances) there in the second, went in alone a couple of times,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “But that’s what that guy (Luongo) does so well, he’s gonna clean up those mistakes and keep you in that tight game. They’ve got enough firepower up front.
“Sixty-eight (Jagr), you give a good player a little bit of room, he’s going to make you pay. You give a great player too much room, he’s going to hurt you bad.”
Michael Hutchinson got the start in net for Winnipeg and stopped 29 of 32 Florida shots .
Both teams went 1-for-4 on the power play .
Luongo made some key stops in the second period as well as the third , he also stopped Nik Ehlers and Mathieu Perrault on breakaways to preserve the win.
The Jets find themselves on the outside looking in on the playoff race and the clock is ticking on what they will do with captain Andrew Ladd who is set to become a free agent after this season. With the trade deadline looming on Monday things should heat up .
The Jets will return home to face the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night and fans may see some new faces in the lineup?
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