WINNIPEG – Battling for their playoff lives the Winnipeg Jets were desperate for a win over the Vancouver Canucks after losing two straight home games the Jets pulled out a 5-4 victory to leapfrog the Los Angeles Kings for the final wild card spot with the Kings in action later Saturday evening. It was the 40th win for the Jets something that hasn’t been achieved since the Thrashers made their only playoff appearance in 2006/2007 season.
“They came out like it was a Stanley Cup Game 7,” said Vancouver forward Alexandre Burrows, who scored twice.
Ondrej Pavelec was back between the pipes for the Jets and stopped 26 out of 30 shots to get the win his 20th victory of the season; including a big breakaway stop on Radim Vrbata.
“There was no easy breathing in there for that one,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.
Eddie Lack was in net for the visiting Canucks and stopped 31 of 36 Jets shots.
“We knew they were going to come hard, and they did,” Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. “We gave up too much early. They’re a desperate team, and they played hard.”
The Jets jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Canucks battled back to make it 2-2 in the first period before the Jets took a 3-2 lead after one. This was looking like a wild game from the eighties as it was back and forth affair.
The Jets held leads of 4-2, 5-3 before finishing it 5-4.
“I don’t think that was the type of game we wanted to play, but that is what it evolved into,” Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. “We could have been a little bit better defensively. We could have been a lot better on the walls. They’re big, strong guys on the wall, and they won a lot of wall battles. Ultimately, I think that’s where we lost the game.”
Winnipeg got big games from Lee Stempniak who scored a pair, his 13th and 14th goals of the season. Mathieu Perrault chipped in with 3 assists and they were both named the first and second stars of the game.
“It’s huge to get these two points and move on to the next one,” Stempniak said. “There is a lot on the line. Every game is so huge, and it will probably come down right to the wire, but we’ve got to give ourselves the best chance to keep staying in it and make the playoffs.”
Other Jets scorers were Jim Slater who got his 5th of the season, Michael Frolik his 18th, Mark Scheifele his 15th.
Canucks got goals from Henrik Sedin his 18th, Daniel Sedin his 17th; Alex Burrows got a pair his 17th and 18th goals of the year.
The Jets special teams struggled as they went 0-4 on the power play something they will need to get going if they want to make the playoffs.
Winger Chris Thorburn of the Jets was playing in NHL game 600 of his career.
The Jets will now head out on the road for three games all against Central Division rivals as they will travel to Minnesota, St. Louis and Colorado before returning home for a showdown with the Calgary Flames.
“It’s hard,” Stempniak said. “Your season is on the line. Every game right now is crucial to us being in the playoffs, and we’re all well aware of it.
“The coaches have been preaching that hopefully we’re going to be playing bigger games as we go along, so we’ve got to get used to playing them now, get used to the pressure, manage it, and at the same time have fun, which is an easy thing to say but hard to do at times.”
The Jets were playing their first game without Dustin Byfuglien who was serving the first game of his four-game suspension; he is eligible to return for the last game of the season.
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