Jets win back-to-back games to start season Solid, complete game from Jets

NEWARK, NJ – The Winnipeg were coming off an impressive first game and win over the Bruins and looked to continue their great start against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. The Jets controlled most aspects of the game and came to play as they got a huge 3-1 victory to improve to 2-0 to start the season.

The Jets got a strong performance from all four lines again, although they shortened the bench to more of a three-line game for most of the third period.

“When you get out on the road you want to start putting some wins together and have some fun and I thought we did a good job of finding an even better effort [against New Jersey],” the Jets’ Andrew Ladd said. WPG Jets logo

Everybody made contributions to get the two points which fits the mold that Jets coach Paul Maurice has been building since he got behind the bench.

“I know it was the second game on back-to-back nights, but this was all about how he played for us last year and where he sits in that locker room for me,” Maurice said of Hutchinson. “He carried the ball for an awfully long time [last season]. There was no doubt in my mind, regardless of what happened against Boston, that we were splitting the goalies in the first two games. We’ll how it goes later on.”

Winnipeg got goals from Mark Scheifele his 2nd in as many nights, Blake Wheeler his 2nd as well , Captain Andrew Ladd notched his first.

Ladd and Wheeler had two-point nights, both adding helpers as well as prized rookie Nik Ehlers getting his first career NHL point with an assist. Ehlers also had five shots on goal and leads the team with 10 in two games.

The Jets were the more physical team and seemed to zero in on Devils rookie Sergey Kalinin as he was caught in the trolly tracks numerous times by Mark Stuart , Dustin Byfuglien , Adam Lowry to name a few. Byfuglien had a strong game laying the body as he dished out a lot of punishing hits.

New Jersey got its lone goal on the power play from former Jet Jiri Tlusty who made a nifty move behind the net and walked out and stuffed it in. Another former Jet Lee Stempniak got an assist on the goal.

“It’ll take a bit to get [used to Hynes’ system], where it’s consistent and we’re not thinking about it,” Devils forward Adam Henrique said. “We know the way he wants us to play the systems. We just didn’t execute. We want to play a high-tempo, fast-paced game, and it seemed like we were a little step behind, a little bit off here or there.”

The Jets started Michael Hutchinson who looked sharp on the limited work he received stopping 20 out of 21 shots for the win.

“We had a great defensive effort,” Hutchinson said. “We blocked a number of their quality scoring chances and our defense did a great job of clearing pucks and limiting their rebounds. Overall I thought I was pretty good with my rebound control, but at the same time whenever there was a rebound, our defense gave me enough time to cover it or move the puck out of the way.”

Corey Schneider was sharp as he faced 30 shots stopping 27 of them. Schneider had no chance on a couple lasers into the top corners as he takes the loss for the Devils.

The Jets will have a couple days off before hitting the ice for a lunch affair in Brooklyn against the Islanders.

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