WINNIPEG – Opening up a very important four-game homestand against a tough division opponent in the Dallas Stars, the Jets were in must-win mode as they are now in a dog fight for the two final playoff spots in the West. The injury bug is biting the Jets as well lately as the team has lost Mathieu Perreault, Ben Chiarot for the season and Blake Wheeler was out for Tuesday’s game
The Jets got a gritty team effort and pulled out an important 4-2 win and put a real dagger in the Stars’ playoff hopes.
“That’s tough in a playoff race,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “No doubt, that’s a hard one to swallow because we need points. We’re desperate for points. We could have gotten points tonight the same as we could have gotten points in Minnesota.”
Michael Hutchinson was making his 4th start in the last five games made 26 saves off 28 shots to get the win. He had some help from his posts as the Stars rang three shots off the iron. Hutch was clutch when needed and was named the game’s first star. He improves to 18-7-4 on the season.
“We knew that Dallas has a lot of offensive skill and that they were going to have a push at some time in the game,” Hutchinson said. “They had a big push during the second period.”
Dallas countered with newly acquired Jhonas Enroth in the net and he wasn’t to busy as he faced only 24 shots giving up three goals taking the loss.
The Jets came out and played a solid first period with a very strong attention to detail and defence but struggled a bit in the second period before getting it going after getting chewed out on the bench by Coach Paul Maurice who voiced his displeasure with being held without a shot for the first ten minutes of the second.
A thundering hit by Dustin Byfuglien on Antoine Roussel got the team going also got the crowd roaring at MTS Centre.
Winnipeg got goals from Bryan Little who notched his 24th a power play marker, Adam Lowry banged in his own rebound for his 7th of the season , Byfuglien showed some soft hands with his 15th a breakaway goal , Michael Frolik scored his 13th into an empty net to seal the deal.
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Ruff said. “It’s the same story. We dominated play. We had some point-blank [chances] that if you don’t take advantage of that, you know you’re going to make a mistake here or there, and we made a mistake.
“You’ve got to give them credit. When we made [a] mistake, they take took advantage of it. That was the counterpunch that hurt us.”
Dallas got goals from Erik Cole his 18th, Jason Demers sniped his3rd of the year.
Frolik had a strong game filling in on the top line with Andrew Ladd and Little. He had 5 shots on goal and logged just under 22 minutes of ice time. Jay Harrison made his way back into the lineup with the injury to Chiarot, he hadn’t played since jan.27.
“(Hutchinson) hasn’t looked a whole lot different for me,” Maurice said. “He really hasn’t in most of his games. He prepares the same way and made some really big saves. The game got away from us in the second period, and he looked great.”
The Jets gave themselves a tiny bit of breathing room with the win but will face a tough test against the Blues on Thursday night.
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