PHILADELPHIA – The state of Pennsylvania has not been kind to the Winnipeg Jets on this trip as the Philadelphia Flyers handed the Jets there second straight road loss with a 5-2 victory. The Jets finished the regular season 0-4 against the Pennsylvania teams and will look to regroup at home against a tough division rival on Saturday night.
Steve Mason got the win over Jets – photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Jets have now given up 10 goals over the last two games and have somewhat fallen away from their strong defensive game and the style that has made them successful up to this point of the season. This is something that coach Paul Maurice will have to clear up as they head into a tough stretch of games.
Michael Hutchinson got the nod in the net for Winnipeg and was sharp stopping 27 of 31 shots including a couple huge stops off Matt Read and Vinny Lecavalier to keep his team close all game. His record falls to 14-5-2 on the season.
The Flyers countered with Steve Mason who was on his game flashing his rookie season form stopping 36 of 38 shots thrown his way. Mason improves to 10-12-6 on the season with the win.
This was another physical affair as the Jets threw 53 hits and the Flyers threw 41 hits. A couple of fast physical teams playing a hard board game. Although the Jets played more into the Flyers plan as this was a wide open affair with numerous odd man rushes. The Jets special teams went 1-5 with the man advantage something that hurt them in the final outcome.
Chris Thorburn (#22), Mark Streit (#32) – photo by Lewis Bleiman
Winnipeg got both their goals off the stick of Mathieu Perreault his 16th and 17th of the season. He was also named the games second star. He was on the receiving end of a vicious elbow to head courtesy of the league’s top scorer Jakub Voracek something that may get a look from the NHL.
The Flyers got goals from Chris VandeVelde his 7th, Wayne Simmonds his 18th, Nick Shultz his 1st, Brayden Schenn his 11th, Sean Couturier added an empty netter his 11th of the season.
“Coming into camp I knew I was on the outside looking in,” Schultz said. “There were a couple injuries early on, and I got a chance to step in sooner and I knew I had to take advantage of it and try to make sure that I played well and prove that I can still play. … It’s been fun to be a part of and fun to be relied on to go out there and play in those situations. It’s fun to go over [the boards] in key moments of the game and be relied upon. That’s what every guy wants.”
The Jets got strong performances from Dustin Byfuglien who played almost thirty minutes and Evander Kane who played twenty minutes and had seven shots on goal.
Matt Halischuk (#15), Jakub Voracek (#93) – photo by Lewis Bleiman
“We had a very difficult time,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “I don’t know what they had us for at the end, a bunch of shots, but we had a tough time getting that second shot. I thought that was a big difference as far as pucks to the net, and we didn’t quite get them there. There were other pieces to our game that weren’t quite there. We weren’t as quick as we need to be.”
The Jets will make their way home for a quick one-game stop before heading West for a back to back battle with the Flames and Canucks.
Winnipeg sits 26-16-8 good for 5th in the West.
“It is not as far off as you think here,” Maurice said. “We are not quite as quick maybe as we were when we went into the [All-Star] break, but it always feels more extreme than it is. It is not that extreme. … We played pretty well, but we had a tough trip and we will get back at it when we get home.”
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