Friday night hockey in Winnipeg was over early.
The visiting Tampa Bay Lightning brought their offensive circus to town and rattled the Jets early and often in a 7-1 thrashing.
Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 10th straight – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Anthony Cirelli struck for his first NHL career hat trick and Nikita Kucherov added two goals in the win.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made saves for his 10th straight win.
“Anytime you go on a run as we’ve got on here the last few weeks, you’re going to need everybody pulling in the same direction,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “But in the end you need your goalie to bail you out when it’s needed. Tonight I know we had a three-goal lead after one (period), but you knew a proud team over there was going to push at home. They got 18 shots [in the second period] and [Vasilevskiy] stood tall the whole time. … He’s been a big part of the run we’re on.”
Jack Roslovic had the lone Jets goal.
“It could be just losing sight of some of those little details, but I feel like the mindset’s right,” Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said. “It feels like the effort’s there, it feels like the mentality’s there, it feels like we’re connected on the ice. But with all that being said, at the end of the day, 7-1 at home, that’s not going to get the job done. There’s definitely some things to figure out.”
Carter Verhaeghe and Alex Killorn added single markers for the Bolts.
“We’ll look at it on video, wash that one off and get ready for [the Chicago Blackhawks]. It’s out of our control now. We had a stinker, and we’ve got to move on,” Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele said after the game.
[WATCH: All Lightning vs. Jets highlights]
Connor Hellebuyck got the start and was given the hook after giving up five goals; he made seven saves.
“We are just not defensively competitive enough in that game to win,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We gave up six shots in the first [period] and three ended up in the back of the net. There’s a 1-on-0, a 2-on-0, and a 2-on-1. First, third, fourth, fifth goal, we should be fairly even strength at times in those plays. And they either outskated us or beat us to the net hard.”
Laurent Brossoit mopped as best he could with 12 saves.
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