ST.LOUIS – The Winnipeg Jets were coming off one of their worst performances since they moved back to Winnipeg, getting beaten 7-0 on Saturday night in Nashville, and were looking to turn things around as they were looking for something Monday night against Central Division rival the St. Louis Blues.
A tough task to say the least for a team that has really been struggling and it looked like another lackluster performance was coming as the Blues dominated the opening period jumping out to a 2-0 lead before the Jets regained some life and tied things at two.
Things looked better but in the end the Blues held on for a 3-2 win handing the Jets a sixth straight loss and a 0-4-0 Central Division road trip.
Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson was back in the pipes after getting the hook versus Nashville after he allowed three goals on seven shots. Things looked shaky early as he gave up two in the first but settled down giving up three on 28 shots. He falls to 4-3-1 on the season with the loss.
St. Louis was lead by David Backes as he scored a pair of goals his fourth and fifth of the season he was a force the whole game picking up an assist as well finishing with three points and 23 minutes of ice time. Vladimir Tarasenko added his 11th of the season and finished with a two-point night.
“It wasn’t perfect, by any means,” Backes said. “I think they were in our face and playing physical, and we had to find a way to respond. We found our game as it went on, scored a big power-play goal, and those things become perpetual.
“We had a lot of great efforts, I think, by guys that maybe don’t show up on the score sheet in [Kyle] Brodziak’s line and [Jori] Lehtera tonight winning big draws in our zone, playing those hard minutes to allow us to have a little bit more time in the offensive zone. [Allen] was stellar as he has been for the last while for us.”
Winnipeg got goals from Dustin Byfuglien his fifth on a rocket that went in off Jay Bouwmeester’s back side; Bryan Little got his ninth of the year after some nice work from Anthony Peluso and Mathieu Perreault.
“It was a better effort,” Little said. “Does it make it easier to swallow that we lost again? We skated much harder tonight. We were competitive in the game. We were down. We stuck together as a team throughout the whole game, and like I said, it doesn’t feel better and make this trip better that we put in an effort. Sometimes it’s not enough.”
This game was a physical battle once the Jets woke up and showed they were not going down easy.
Troy Bouwer and Jacob Trouba dropped the mitts for a very good tilt that stemmed from an earlier meeting this season where the two players were at each other and tonight things just boiled over.
The Jets will now head home for three games and look to get out of this funk that has seen them slide to sixth in their division and 10th in the West.
“Based on the beating we took in Nashville, a lot of really good things,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We made plays, we moved the puck, had some quickness, had some chances and played a damn good road game in here. That was a long way to come from that [Nashville] game, and it wasn’t easy for them to do so. You’ve got to give those players credit to be able to come out and get moving again and make plays and try and have some confidence in the game, and they found it and looked good doing it. It was absolutely a bounce-back. We needed a better result to feel good about it, but certainly we know it’s there.”
Things won’t get easier as the Jets host the Canucks next and desperately need a win.
Follow me on Twitter@hrank94
You must be logged in to post a comment.