In Nashville Thursday night, the visiting Winnipeg Jets faced a test of their success this season and validated their record with a convincing 5-1 win over the Predators.
Brendan Lemieux struck for two goals in the win.
Connor Hellebuych backstopped Jets to win over Nashville – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
“Like I said in between periods, I was excited to play against these guys,” Lemieux said. “It kind of has that old-time hockey feel to it. There’s some passion in the game. There’s a long season and a lot of games, and some games don’t have that, and this was one of those games that you circle on the calendar and you know is going to be a fun one.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 37 saves for the win.
“I thought our details were right,” Hellebuyck said. “We were working them hard through the offensive zone. We were kind of controlling the game. Anytime you can control the flow, I think it’s huge, especially at this level.”
Viktor Arvidsson scored the lone Predators goal in the loss.
“I mean, it was a big game for us,” the Predators’ Roman Josi said. “We play Winnipeg and they’re in front of us. I actually thought the first period was good, it was back and forth. But after that we were just flat, couldn’t get anything going. They were just the better team for two periods there.”
Nashville dropped to 28-17-4.
Mason Appleton, Bryan Little and Brandon Tanev also scored for the Jets.
“We’ve played them so many times and played in this building so many times, we’re kind of prepared for what’s about to come,” Little said. “Believe me, I’ve been on a team when we didn’t have success here, when we had some rough nights here. It’s good to finally be able to come here with that confidence.”
Winnipeg improved to 31-14-2.
“It was kind of a mixture of things. I thought we came out the right way. We’ve played here enough to know that they come out really hard and really strong off the bat, so I thought we had a pretty good first period. We got a couple goals from Lemieux, big goals, and Hellebuyck made big saves when we needed him to,” Little said.
[WATCH: All Jets vs. Predators highlights]
Pekka Rinne made 29 saves in the loss.
“I think we couldn’t get any pressure going, especially in the second. They kept coming back at us, kept playing in our zone and we didn’t have much. Even in the third, we couldn’t really get any pressure going and they quick-upped a lot of pucks and kind of caught us,” the Predators’ Roman Josi said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.