In Ottawa, the visiting Winnipeg Jets defeated the Senators, 56-1 on Saturday evening.
“We challenged [our best players] this morning because we needed a little bit more out of them,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “They responded.”
Blake Wheeler collected his 900th career NHL point in the win.
Wheeler had a goal and three points on the night.
Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves in the Jets win.
“You want some of those saves. They were timely saves,” Bowness said of Hellebuyck’s performance. “He made some big ones. Listen, this kid is great to be around. I love his attitude and his enthusiasm. He’s a great goalie and he’s a great competitor.”
Nikolaj Ehlers scored in the first period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
Josh Norris, who the lone marker for the Sens, tied it in the first., 1-1.
Mark Scheifele scored this first of his double on the night with five minutes gone in the middle frame for a 2-1 lead.
“He’s a fantastic player for us, and he played great for us tonight, too,” Scheifele said of Ehlers. “We need him with his A game for us to win. He was fantastic again tonight, and still only a few games in from him coming back.”
A pass deflected off Wheeler’s shin pad for a 3-1, lead.
“We talked about it before the game, we need a greasy goal here from our forwards,” Bowness said. “And then [Wheeler] goes to the net, [Ehlers] puts it in around there, and [Wheeler] gets his screws in. We haven’t had one of those for a while. You just need one of those sometimes to get you going 5-on-5.”
The Senators fell to 20-23-3.
“We’re going to shuffle the top nine,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “I mean, there’s guys that are minus every night, and it just can’t continue. That’s on me for allowing them to keep playing together or certain guys to play together, and if you’re getting scored on, it’s not working. So we’re going to work on every line, and we’re going to grind our way out of this.”
Scheifele scored late in the third period to give the Jets a little breathing room at 4-1.
“It’s not good,” Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “No one’s happy right now, but, I mean, it’s the game of hockey and they were the better team tonight, and that’s it.”
Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti scored off the power play at 18-17 for the 5+1 final.
“I think we got to the net, first of all,” Scheifele said. “A lot of [offensive] zone time. Great plays by our defensemen, and a good job by our forwards holding on to the puck and creating sustained [offensive] zone time. I thought that was huge.”
Anton Forsberg made 25 saves in the Ottawa loss.
“We definitely know we can play better,” Ottawa’s Claude Giroux said. “I’m trying to wrap my head around what happened tonight, and we had some times during the game where we played good and sometimes we didn’t and they came back at us.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.