ANAHEIM Calif – If the Jets are to make the playoffs they will need to figure out the back-to-back games on the schedule as they continued their lackluster play. After turning in a great game Saturday night in San Jose they came out flat in Anaheim where they found themselves down 2-0 midway through the first period and the Ducks never looked back as they defeated the Jets by a 4-1 margin.
“We’re not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, but we are playing a little bit better,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We talked about this not necessarily being the second half of the season, but being the back nine. You can have a bad front nine in golf and still make up for it. They’ve taken it to heart.”
Rickard Rakell led the Ducks with a goal and an assist and was dangerous with the puck most of the night in the Jets zone. It was his eighth goal of the season as he stripped the puck from behind the Jets net and walked out front and banged home a shot past starting goalie Michael Hutchinson who was seeing his first start since December 22.
“The first period, I think I was just trying to force things a little bit too much, make things happen instead of letting the game come to me,” Hutchinson said. “I think as the game went on I relaxed more and let the game come.”
Rakell set up Corey Perry in the second as he scored on an absolute bomb of a shot for his 14th goal of the year.
The Ducks scored two power play markers which was somewhat the difference in this game as Kevin Bieksa got his first of the season and Ryan Kesler rounded out the scoring with his sixth.
“It’s nice to contribute,” Bieksa said. “At the end of the day, we have to score a couple goals to get some wins. It’s nice to get four tonight.”
Although Winnipeg was more disciplined Sunday night the Ducks were still two for two with the man advantage. The Jets were 0 for 4 on the power play against the league’s top penalty killing team the Ducks.
The Jets looked flat to start the game as they were playing the back end of their back to back California trip.
“We were the slower team on the ice from the start to the finish, really,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We had a few good chances, their guy made some good saves, but not enough to warrant us being tight to that game.”
Chris Thorburn tried to get them going as he dropped the mitts with Anaheim’s Chris Stewart in what turned to be a very good battle between two big boys.
The Jets didn’t seem to get a spark until late in the period where they got some good looks on the power play but couldn’t convert.
In the second period, Winnipeg started to play a very physical game and created some chances off big hits and they got there only goal of the night as Blake Wheeler set up Tyler Myers for his fifth of the season.
John Gibson made 19 saves for the Ducks to get his eighth win of the season.
Hutchinson stopped 31 shots for the Jets and falls to 5-9-1 on the season.
The Jets re-assigned forward Matt Halischuk to the Manitoba Moose as Mark Sheifele returned to the line up off the injured list and played 17:33 and had 4 shots on goal after missing the last 4 games with a concussion.
Winnipeg will now travel to Nashville to play on Tuesday night and will need a big win as their playoff chances are falling fast.
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