In Winnipeg, the Jets took a total of five shots in the middle frame on Friday night.
Lucky for them, three found the back of the net in a three-goal frame.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves and protected those three strikes n a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
“When you’re having an off night like that, we certainly didn’t have a whole lot of run support for [Hellebuyck], but he was there when we needed him,” Winnipeg interim coach Scott Arniel said.
The Jets improves to 9-5-2, off their fifth win in six games.
“When you go 11 minutes without a shot in the second period, you’ve got to simplify things a little bit,” Arniel said. “We did score those goals and they kind of came off transition, but you’ve got to give Buffalo credit. They were real good at stealing pucks, knocking pucks out of the air. If you take your time and think you’re going to have some space to skate and make an easy play, they close it off really quick. It wasn’t pretty, but it was two points. We’ll move on to tomorrow.”
Winnipeg took a 1-0 lead at 2:12 of the second off a strike by Cole Perfetti.
“I put an emphasis a bit more on shooting the puck,” Perfetti said. “The puck is definitely going in the back of the net for our line and it’s working. So, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and creating chances.”Mason Appleton extended the advantage to 2-0 at 4:33
Just 23 seconds later, Alex Tuch scored for the Sabres to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
“I think tonight, we had a lot more conviction than we’ve had in past games this year,” Tuch said. “It’s a standard that we have to keep ourselves to. We can’t wait for it to happen or wait to get down a goal or wait to get fired up by the coach or captain or whoever’s talking on the bench. We have to go out there and find it within ourselves. You know what? Guys have to elevate. If you’re not going to elevate this early in the season, then why do it all?”
Winnipeg reclaimed the two-goal lead on a marker from Nikolaj Ehlers at 8:12 of the second.
“After our 2-0 goal, we obviously want to keep the momentum going,” Ehlers said. “I think we’ve let in a few goals after being up 2-0, right after the goal. We want to try and get away from that obviously and get a bigger lead.”
Buffalo dropped to 7-9-1.
“The third period, I will say for me, was the culmination of everything to this point of the year, and our guys finally decided to wake up and compete harder instead of waiting,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “I like the way they responded.”
JJ Peterka hit for a goal with 60 seconds gone in the third to trim the deficit back to one for the Sabre, but that was all the offense Buffalo could muster in the final stanza.
Eric Comrie made 15 saves in the loss.
“It’s tough to win games with only two goals,” Tuch said. “I think in this league, it’s becoming more offensive, so we’ve got to find ways to score. I thought Hellebuyck played really well, but I thought we carried most of the pace, most of the tempo out there. It was good to see. I think we did it a little bit late, though. I think we can still start a little bit more on time.”
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