In Winnipeg, the Jets are finding their legs, shaky, but finding them.
On Saturday night, the Jets fought off a game effort from the Nashville Predators for a 6-4 win, their second straight.
Paul Stastny struck twice for the Jets.
“More than anything, it’s been timely goals,” Stastny said. “Whether it’s a big power-play goal or whether … today it was [Adam Lowry’s] goal after we started slow. Every time they got a goal or came close, we came right back and pounced on them and didn’t sit back. That’s the biggest.”
Kyle Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored single markers in the win.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves. to get the win.
Nick Cousins had a goal for the Preds.
“Not good enough,” Cousins said. “I think defensively, we’re just doing it to ourselves. I think through the neutral zone we had the puck on our stick and we’re trying to go east-west more so than north-south. They’re a good team. They give you nothing in the neutral zone.”
Nashville took a brief 1-0 lead in the first period off a goal from Colton Sissons; Adam Lowry scored less than a minute later for a 1-1 tie.
“The sky’s the limit for Pierre,” the Jets’ Nate Schmidt said. “You play against the guy and you see how big of a player he is, how impactful he can be. I think when you see him as a player you see what kind of game he can bring. There’s so many intangibles with what he can do. He can play big, he can play skilled, he’s got a lot of speed. And people forget, I forget, how young he is. He’s still a 22, 23 year old guy in the League that’s been around for five six years.”
Kristian Vesalainen also scored for Winnipeg.
“It took a lot of weight from my shoulders. That was a long time coming so it was really nice,” Vesalainen said. “I was actually so glad that I scored so I don’t know who picked [up] the puck. I didn’t see that at all, but yeah, it’s somewhere here for sure.”
Roman Josi and Philip Tomasino added goals for the Predators to make the final period a tenser affair.
“I’ve liked our last three games an awful lot,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “I think the important things that we’ve done well in our last three is we’re shooting the puck better with a mindset of being a team that shoots the puck and because of that, you’re going to be net front more often. We got some high tips and some low tips net front and we’ve got players here that can score goals. I think if we play like shooters, we can score goals.”
Juuse Saros made 23 saves in the loss.
“I don’t think it’s a work ethic thing or anything tactical system-wise,” Cousins said. “It’s just I feel like it’s on ourselves. I think the more we play simple that’s kind of the recipe for success four our team. It’s not overly complicated.”
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