DETROIT – The story is all too familiar for the Winnipeg Jets who have struggled throughout the 2015/16 season. They came out of the gate at Joe Louis Arena with a 2-0 lead after the opening twenty minutes and then got caught for long stretches in their end; bad bounces ended up in the back of their net . Once again a goal post cost them at least a point as Mark Sheifele rang one off the bar in the final seconds as the Red Wings escaped with a 3-2 home ice win.
The Jets special teams let them down again as they went 0-for-4 on the power play and didn’t muster up much offence at all. There penalty kill continued to be a strong point as they killed off all three of Detroit’s man advantages.
“I thought our guys showed unbelievable compete level, I thought our compete level was awesome,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I actually thought we started the game good. … That’s not an easy challenge, but I thought our guys came out and played great the rest of the game. We talked about it being a 60-minute game, and in the end we hung in there enough to win.”
Michael Hutchinson got the start Thursday night and he had a strong performance stopping 32 of 35 Detroit shots. He had some bad luck as one of the Red Wings goals went in off Jets defender Paul Postma.
At the other end Petr Mrazek got the start in goal for the Red Wings and he stopped 23 shots to get his 25th win of the season for the Wings.
Dylan Larkin and Jonathan Ericsson and Justin Abdelkader (game-winner) scored for the Wings.
“I think we used our speed. Our offense got going and we put them on their heels,” Larkin said of the second period. “We had a few big shifts where we really pinned them in their zone and we might have worn out their [defense]. We were really playing a team game; our transition was good, our goaltending was good. We did a good job attacking.”
Winnipeg got goals from Marco Dano who got his second of the season and first goal as a Winnipeg Jet, Tyler Myers scored his eighth of the year.
“We were really good in the first and they were really good in the second,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “It was close and even in the third.”
Dano who was moved up to play with Mathieu Perreault on the second line showed some good net drive as he got to the front of the net and ripped home a goal after a nice set up from Perreault.
The Jets struggled in the second and third period at times as they got caught on long shifts and were hemmed in their own end for long stretches as the Red Wings moved the puck around effortlessly.
The Jets are hoping Dustin Byfuglien will be well after he missed most of the third period with a lower body injury.
Winnipeg returns home to take on the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.
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