WINNIPEG – Ondrej Pavelec has certainly stepped up and taken his game to another level lately as he was making his 4th consecutive start in the net for the Winnipeg Jets and was facing one of the most-skilled teams in the league right now in the Washington Capitals. Pavelec was nothing short of spectacular making 28 saves for the shutout in a 3-0 win for his Jets.
The Jets are currently on a four-game win streak and Pavelec has been one of the main reasons. He was also named the game’s first star.
It was a pretty evenly matched game as these are two very good skating teams and are both very physical. They are also old rivals from the South East Division so they always have good hard physical battles.
Washington also has one of the top goalies in the league in Braden Holtby who is having a great season this year. They managed to get two goals by him on 23 shots. Although he did make a couple of key saves to keep his team close till the end.
“I think the main thing we have to focus on [during the break] is to keep the businesslike attitude,” Holtby said. “You get a break like that, it’s pretty easy to sit back and just relax. I think we have to keep working. We’re not where we want [to be] yet with our goal. We really need to use [the remaining nine games] to our advantage, and [the break is] crucial to keep our minds in the right place.”
Winnipeg got goals from Mark Stuart who scored his 2nd of the season after some great work from Mark Sheifele and Drew Stafford.
“Mark Scheifele‘s line probably did the only thing you can do against that line, and that’s control the puck,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.
Scheifele got his 13th from Blake Wheeler and Stafford; Adam Lowry scored his 9th into an empty net a shorthanded goal to seal the win.
Wheeler said, “I think we’re all on the same page. Our line, we go out there, and we’re just trying to use our speed to be effective defensively, and it is going to create offense for us.”
The Capitals did everything they could to score but Pavelec shut the door as he made some key stops in the final frame off Joel Ward, Eric Fehr, and Alex Ovechkin. Brooks Laich rang one off the iron before Lowry sealed the deal with the empty netter.
“We have the belief,” Stafford said. “We’re not playing for anyone else except for the fans and ourselves in [the dressing room]. We believe in ourselves and know that we can compete with anyone out there when we’re playing our game.”
The Jets were once again missing Dustin Byfuglien and Bryan Little but continue to get key minutes from Tyler Myers who played almost 25 minutes and Mark Stuart who had 22 minutes, they also got another strong game from the Scheifele, Wheeler, and Stafford line.
“[Stafford] makes great reads,” Maurice said. “He does some really, really good things with the puck from the top of the circles on down. He has a really good idea of when [the puck] just needs to go to the net … or when to pull up and make a play. Because [Scheifele and Wheeler] are so quick, they can react off that.”
Winnipeg now find themselves four points up on LA for that last wild card spot and head out on the road for a quick two-game trip to Edmonton and Vancouver.
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