Morrissey scores twice, adds assist as Jets down Oilers 7-5
Sunday, 05 March 2023 03:19 Written by Philip Paul-Martin
Mark Scheifele, Dylan DeMelo and Morgan Barron each had a goal and an assist as the Jets bounced back from a 6-3 pasting in Edmonton Friday night to snap a five game losing streak.
Kyle Capobianco and Adam Lowry also scored for the Jets.
Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for Winnipeg, who moved to 36-35-2.
Kempe fires game winner in shootout as Kings edge Jets 6-5
Wednesday, 01 March 2023 04:07 Written by Philip Paul-MartinAnze Kopitar had a four-goal outing for the Kings.
Gabriel Vilardi scored the other goal for Los Angeles.
Drew Doughty had a pair of assists.
Pheonix Copley turned aside 26 shots for the Kings, who moved to 34-20-8.
Josh Morrissey scored twice and added an assist while Kevin Stenlund also had a pair of goals for Winnipeg, who dropped their 4th straight game.
Kyle Connor had the other Jet goal.
Mark Scheifele had a pair of assists.
Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves for the Jets, who dropped to 35-24-2.
Josh Morrisey got Winnipeg on the board first 15:52 into the first period when he followed his point shot to the net and hammered the puck past Copley after Mark Scheifele poked the disc into the crease.
Morrisey made it 2-0 1:45 later when he took a feed from Dylan DeMelo before moving in and stepping into a slap shot, beating Copley high glove side.
The goal was his 13th of the season.
Anze Kopitar got Los Angeles on the board with a power play marker 26 seconds into the second when he backed into open ice after winning a faceoff and one timed a Kevin Fiala feed past Hellebuyck to make it 2-1.
Kyle Connor restored the two-goal cushion at 6:08 when he scored from the left side board hash marks after snapping the disc past Copley, beating him high glove side to make it 3-1.
The goal was his 27th of the season.
Kopitar made it 3-2 at 9:14 when he re-directed an Alex Edler shot from the point past Hellebuyck.
Kopitar scored his third of the contest just under a minute and a half later when he went to the net after winning a faceoff in the Winnipeg end, taking time to tip a Drew Doughty shot past Hellebuyck.
The goal was his 23rd of the season.
Kevin Stenlund scored at the 12 minute mark when he worked his way out of the corner and beat Copley blocker side with a high wrister to end a 13-game goal scoring drought.
Jet newcomer Nino Niederreiter introduced himself to Winnipeg fans with 1:51 left in the second after he took Kings defenceman Sean Durzi heavily into the boards and ended up pairing off with Adrian Kempe in the ensuing fracas.
Niederreiter was acquired by the Jets in a trade with Nashville over the weekend.
He took the extra two minute penalty but that didn't matter after Stenlund broke free and fired his second goal of the period shorthanded just 17 seconds later at 18:26.
The goal was his 5th of the season.
Kopitar scored his 4th of the night 1:26 into the third when Gabriel Vilardi tied it up 15:54 into the 3rd when he broke in alone and snapped the disc past Hellebuyck high glove side to knot the game at 5.
The goal was his 19th of the season.
The game went into overtime.
There was no scoring in overtime and the game went to a shootout.
LA-Vilardi (miss), Kempe (score) WPG-Scheifele (miss), Connor (miss), Wheeler (miss) SHOTS-LOS ANGELES 37 WINNIPEG 31
ATTENDANCE-13,203
NOTES-Jets Centre Adam Lowry played in his 600th career NHL game on the night.
Los Angeles hosts Montreal Thursday while Winnipeg travels to Edmonton to face the Oilers on Friday.
The win was their fourth straight.
Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto scored the other Avalanche goals.
Alexandar Georgiev turned aside 26 shots for Colorado, who moved to 32-19-5.
Mason Appleton scored the lone goal for the Jets on the night.
Connor Hellebuyck and David Rittich combined to make () saves for Winnipeg, who have lost four of their last five outings to drop to 35-23-1.
Nathan MacKinnon gave the Avalanche the lead 19 seconds into the contest when he took a breakaway feed from Valeri Nichushkin before cruising in and driftring a high wrister past Hellebuyck.
The goal was his 20th of the season and the fastest goal to start a game for Colorado this season.
Mason Appleton tied it up with a power play marker at 3:12 when he tipped a Nate Schmidt slap shot from the right point past Georgiev to make it 1-1.
The goal was his 2nd of the season.
Mikko Rantanen scored a minute and a half later when Evan Rodrigues banked a puck off the side boards which Rantanen skated into at the Winnipeg blue line before moving in close and parking a shot just under the crossbar to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead.
The goal was his 37th of the season.
J.T. Compher made it 3-1 at 7:34 when he redirected a Mikko Rantanen point shot past Hellebuyck.
Bowen Byram gave Colorado a three-goal cushion at 10:58 after Andrew Cogliano pivoted at the top of the right face-off circle and fed him a pass.
The Avalanche defenceman moved in to the high slot before he wired a wrister past Hellebuyck, beating him glove side to make it 4-1.
The goal was his 5th of the season.
Matt Nieto got his stick down during a net front battle in time to convert a J.T. Compher feed and shovel the disc past Hellebuyck to give Colorado a 5-1 lead 10:59 into the second period.
David Rittich started the third period in goal for the Jets.
Colorado visits Calgary Saturday while Winnipeg hosts the New York Islanders Sunday afternoon.
SHOTS-COLORADO 36 WINNIPEG 27
ATTENDANCE-14,157
Dubois fires game winner in shootout as Jets edge Seattle 3-2
Wednesday, 15 February 2023 04:01 Written by Philip Paul-MartinDubois moved in slowly on Philipp Grubauer before snapping the disc past him with a quick wrister.
The win was the 4th in a row for the Jets, who moved to 34-19-1.
The Flyers snapped a two-game losing skid with the road win over the Jets.
Kiefer Bellows, Owen Tippett and Tony DeAngelo scored the other Flyer goals.
Rasmus Ristolainen had a pair of assists.
Carter Hart made 40 saves for Philadelphia, to earn his 1st shutout of the season.
The win also moved the Flyers to the .500 mark (21-21-9).
Connor Hellebuyck and David Rittich combined to stop 29 shots for Winnipeg, who dropped their third straight game to fall to 31-19-1.
Noah Cates opened the scoring 15:15 into the first when Jets defenceman Neal Pionk kicked the puck right to him after a hard pass from the corner by Morgan Frost.
Cates made no mistake going low blocker side on Hellebuyck.
The goal was his 8th of the season.
Kiefer Bellows gave the Flyers a two-goal cushion 11:53 into the second when he parked himself in the low slot, just outside the faceoff circle before a pinching Rasmus Ristolainen hit him with a backhand pass from behind the goal line.
Bellows hammered the disc past Hellebuyck, beating him high glove side just under the cross bar to make it 2-0.
The goal was his 1st of the season.
Owen Tippett scored 3:11 into the third to give the Flyers a 3-0 lead.
Tippett took a Rasmus Ristolainen feed at centre ice, before moving into the Winnipeg zone and beating Hellebuyck cleanly with a low wrister.
The goal was his 14th of the season.
"I mean obviously I saw him get possession behind the net and I just tried to stretch the zone and open up things below. He made a great play and I think he had enough on it they couldn't knock it down. It was a great pass," said Tippett.
Tony DeAngelo scored at 6:48 of the third to make it 4-0 Philadelphia.
He didn't mince words about his club's performance either.
"This group knows how to win. There is a price to pay in this league, you have to work, you have to compete, and you have to do it every night. As the season progresses, it gets harder. Right now, you’re seeing what we’re seeing, as soon as there is a little adversity - we handled it well early in the year - we’re not handling it well right now. The difference makers, you can’t even find them out there. Until we make that commitment again to play as a team and we want to win, this is what you get," he said.
Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella was pleased with his club's effort on the night. “Everybody played. You never know what happens when you get into this situation with the break. The amount of hockey that we’ve played during the month, right from the opening faceoff, I just thought we played simple and everybody contributed," he said.
SHOTS-PHILADELPHIA WINNIPEG
ATTENDANCE-14,476
Wheeler nets game winner as Jets edge Coyotes 2-1
Monday, 16 January 2023 03:29 Written by Philip Paul-MartinThe win was their third in a row.
Winnipeg has won eight of their last nine games.
Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored for the Jets, who returned for a single game before a five-game road trip beginning Tuesday in Montreal.
Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for Winnipeg, who moved to 29-14-1.
Clayton Keller scored the Coyotes lone goal on the night.
Karel Vejmelka turned aside 22 shots for Arizona, who dropped to 13-25-5.
Arizona lost their season high ninth game in a row.
There was no scoring in the first period.
Pierre-Luc Dubois opened the scoring with a power play marker 37 seconds into the second when he tipped a Josh Morrissey slap shot past Vejmelka to make it 1-0 Jets.
The goal was his 20th of the season.
“They’re tricky games to play. You saw last night what they (Arizona) did against Minnesota, who’s another good team. The third period they played really well. They give their themselves a really good chance of winning so we knew coming in here they’re going to compete. Their goalie seems too always play unbelievably well against us so it’s never an easy game to play, but at this point in the year we need two points. That was big for us tonight," said Dubois.
Clayton Keller tied the game at 11:02 when he followed up on a Jacob Chychrun rush which pushed the Winnipeg defenceman back and took a feed from Nick Schmaltz before moving in and outwaiting Connor Hellebuyck before snapping a high wrister into a largely open net.
The goal was his 15th of the season.
"I don't know. I think I've had a couple of rushes this year like that where I've maybe shot a little too early," said Keller. "I think that one I just kinda thought back to that in that split second and I was able to you know, make the move around the guy and put it in the net. Chych (Chychrun) and Schmaltzie (Schmaltz) made a great play there."
Blake Wheeler scored at 16:45 to finish off a crafty three-way passing play between himself, Cole Perfetti and Mark Scheifele to give Winnipeg a 2-1 lead.
“Yeah those guys made great plays. Scheif had a bit of a break and it was kind of tough to get it to him. And then was just trying to create some space there for Cole. Those guys made a couple great plays and it was up to me to shovel it in," said Wheeler.
There was no scoring in the third period.
A clearly exasperated Coyotes Head Coach André Tourigny described his club's effort as being of the 'A' variety but lacking in result.
“I don't know what to say anymore. We worked really hard. I'm really proud of the guys. It's back-to-back. Winnipeg is a really, really good team. I think we hold our own, we battle hard," he said.
Jets Head Coach Rick Bowness said the Coyotes were not an easy opponent.
"Yeah, we did. And we had some great looks to get that third goal and they have to open it up a little bit more but that's how they play and give them a lot of credit for it. I watched the game last night against Minnesota and it was the same type of thing. They frustrated Minnesota. They're fast and they're on top of you and they don't give you a lot of room. Their gaps are really good so they don't give you a lot of room and the only way to open that up is to get a two goal lead. So they were trying to hang on and get a goal at the end but those looks we had, early in the third, to get that 3-1 goal, well that changes everything for them but give them a lot of credit. That's how they play and they're hard to play against," he said.
Winnipeg visits Montreal Tuesday while Arizona returns home to host Detroit.
SHOTS-ARIZONA 21 WINNIPEG 24
ATTENDANCE-13,949
NOTES-Mark Scheifele passed Ilya Kovalchuk on the all-time scorers list for 2nd overall for the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise with his second period assist.
Jets down Lightning 4-2 to win their fourth straight
Saturday, 07 January 2023 03:49 Written by Philip Paul-MartinWith the Jets enjoying a two-man advantage, Mark Schiefele hit Connor with a cross ice feed, which the Jet winger one timed through Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy's pads give the Winnipeg their first lead of the night on their way to their fourth win in a row.
Dylan Samberg worked the puck over to Ville Heinola along the blue line before he wound up and fired a slapper which Gagner got a piece of on the way past him and into the Calgary net.
The goal was his 7th of the season for the Jet veteran.
“Yeah, just was able to get my backhand on it. It was a great shot by Ville. He kept it low, and allowed me to see it the whole way. It’s definitely a good feeling," said Gagner.
Brendan Dillon and Josh Morrissey also scored for the Jets, who won their third straight game.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 33 shots for Winnipeg, who moved to 14-13-1.
Nikita Zadorov, Mikael Backlund Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves for Calgary, who dropped to 18-14-7.
There was no scoring in the first period.
Brendan Dillon got the Jets on the board with just over five minutes left in the second period when he tipped in Dylan DeMelo shot from the point past Markstrom.
The goal was his 1st of the season.
Nikita Zadorov converted a Tyler Toffoli feed with a minute left in the second to draw Calgary even.
Toffoli hit Zadorov, who was cruising into the high slot.
The Flames winger drilled a wrister through Hellebuyck's pads to make it 1-1.
The goal was his 5th of the season.
"Ya I mean I think the game went on you know we start finding our legs. Couple stretches in the second period, third period when we were dominating five-on-five definitely. I think there's penalties, I think they're (Jets) and experienced team they play tough hockey especially at home," said Zadorov.
"We lost the coverage on all three goals. Kind of cost us today. They score more goals than us," he added.
Kyle Connor nearly broke the tie at the seven minute mark of the third when Pierre-Luc Dubois' centering pass found him alone in front of Markstrom, but his shot sailed high.
Josh Morrissey scored 10:22 into the third to make it 2-1 Winnipeg.
The Jet defenceman worked a give-and-go perfectly with Kyle Connor in the slot, with Connor tipping the disc back to Morrissey, who skated into the puck before unleashing a wrister which beat Markstrom high glove side.
The goal was his 7th of the season.
Mikael Backlund broke in alone and slid the puck between Hellebuyck's pads to knot the contest at 2 just under the twelve minute mark of the third.
The goal was his 8th of the season.
Flames Head Coach Darryl Sutter was succinct in his assessment of the game afterward.
“Close game. We’ve played a lot of close games this year. You need one of your big—or somebody, scorers, to step up and make a play. Reminds me a lot of the Edmonton game, actually," he said.
“Yeah. I mean, even when I think we had some momentum in the second period, before they scored we had four or five really good shifts in a row and he (Hellebuyck)made a couple big saves. The difference in the game.”
Jets Head Coach Rick Bowness liked the fact that all three of Winnipeg's goals were generated by his defenceman.
"We put a lot of focus in training camp on getting our D a lot more involved, as you know. The way the league is played today - and you saw a perfect example of it tonight - there are five guys around the net and it’s tough to make cute little plays in there. It really is. The only way to get them to move is to get the puck back to your defence, then someone has to come out a little bit, which opens up a little space around the net. In saying that, you have to have someone at the net to tip it, to get a screen,to get a rebound, whatever it is. It’s a buy-in from the players that we’ve had from day one. The focus has been our defence have to get more involved with on the rush, and our forwards have to use them more to spread out the defence around the net. Tonight I thought we weren’t using them enough early, when we started to use them, we started to put pucks at the net, we got some goals from it. They don’t always go in like that, they went in for us tonight. But regardless of whether they go in or not, a shot willcreate a scramble. It’s tough to generate a lot of low plays unless you get your defence involved. Then, again, you have to have net presence," he said.
Both clubs return to action on Friday at home as Calgary hosts the New York Islanders and Winnipeg faces Tampa Bay.
SHOTS-CALGARY 35 WINNIPEG 25
ATTENDANCE-14,130
Scheifele nets hat trick as Jets down Canucks 4-2 to halt three game losing skid
Friday, 30 December 2022 04:00 Written by Philip Paul-MartinKyle Connor and Josh Morrissey each had a pair of assists for the Jets.
Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves for Winnipeg, to move to 22-13-1.
Jets forward Sam Gagner played in his 1000th NHL career game.
Andrei Kuzmenko had a goal and an assist to pace the Canucks.
Conor Garland also scored for Vancouver, who saw their three-game winning streak snapped.
Collin Delia turned aside 35 shots for the Canucks, who dropped to 16-16-3.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored 41 seconds into the contest, one timing an Elias Pettersson feed from behind the goal line past Hellebuyck to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead.
Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg threw the puck across the ice from the right corner and Pettersson cut it off and slid the disc to Kuzmenko, who drilled it past Hellebuyck.
The Jets didn't record their first shot on goal until 10:39 into the first, when Mark Scheifele slapped a puck out of the air at Delia.
The momentum started to shift in the second period as Winnipeg outshot Vancouver 20-7 and took the lead with a pair of power play goals.
Mark Scheifele got Winnipeg on the board with a power play marker 13:52 into the second.
With Lane Pedersen off for tripping Dylan DeMelo, Scheifele got his stick on a Josh Morrissey shot from the left point and tipped it past Delia to tie the game at 1.
The goal was his 21st of the season.
Pierre-Luc Dubois gave the Jets the lead on a penalty shot 15:42 into the second after he was fouled from behind on a breakaway by Canucks defenceman Ethan Bear.
Dubois moved in before switching to his forehand, beating Delia blocker side with a wrister to make it 2-1.
The goal was his 17th of the season.
“Yeah, we had a slower start. Obviously, going down 1-0 isn’t how you want to start at home but I thought as the game was on, we got better and better. It wasn’t perfect, but you’re not going to go from how we were playing before to perfect. It’s like baby steps. Look, it’s two points, we’ll take it and we’re moving on to Edmonton," said Dubois.
Scheifele netted his second power play goal of the game with 2.5 seconds left in the second after firing through a screen provided by Adam Lowry.
The goal was his 22nd of the season.
Conor Garland pulled the Canucks to within a goal 13:11 into the third when he banked a puck off of Hellebuyck's left pad after an errant shot banked off the end glass.
The goal was his 6th of the season.
Scheifele added an empty netter with 28 seconds remaining in regulation to seal the win for the Jets.
“Yeah, for sure. That’s how you score in this league, you’ve got to do the right things over and over and not try to chase the game," said Scheifele of his three-goal night.
"I think we had four lines that were playing well today and we need that more and more every game,” he added.
Bo Horvat was succinct in his assessment of what went wrong on their end.
"We were happy with the way we started. We just didn't follow it up with anything good in the second and third," he said. "You know we kind of sat back a little bit and got comfortable and that's the result, that happens. You take a couple of you know, unfortunate penalties and they capitalize on them."
Canucks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau said his club lost their spark offensively during the second period.
“We started to focus a little too much on defence and not on offence at all. The last five minutes (of the second period), they started to gain some momentum and they’re a good shut-down team and they’ve got a good goalie," he said.
Jets Head Coach Rick Bowness said his club's turnaround in the second period was simple.
“We started skating again. I think that early goal against kind of set us on our heels a little bit. And that team has been playing really well lately so they were feeling it. Sometimes you just gotta play through it and we were able to do that tonight. That team, they had won what seven in a row on the road. So we had to play through it and we did.”
SHOTS-VANCOUVER 22 WINNIPEG 39
ATTENDANCE-15,325
NOTES-Sam Gagner played in his 1000th career NHL game. The Jets honored him with a special pre-game ceremony to mark the occasion.
Winnipeg defenceman Josh Morrissey left the game after taking a hit from Vancouver's Tyler Myers and did not return. He will be re-evaluated Friday.
In fact, Minnesota played an almost flawless game according to their Head Coach Dean Evason.
“Pretty much everything. From the goaltender out, we played the right way, we did a lot of good things. We got pucks out, we got pucks in, we didn’t mess around. Not a lot of turnovers. Just a real, almost a perfect game, for coming off a break. We simplified. We didn’t make anything complicated tonight. So it was not necessarily the game plan, but the execution was fantastic," he said.
The Wild have won seven of their last eight contests, including their first game post Christmas break.
Samuel Walker also scored for Minnesota.
Sam Steel had a pair off assists for the Wild.
Fillip Gustavsson turned aside 31 shots for Minnesota, who moved to 20-12-2.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the lone goal for the Jets, who dropped to 21-13-1.
Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves for Winnipeg, who lost their third straight game.
That fact isn't lost on Jets centre Adam Lowry on their season high three-game losing skid.
“I think after every loss there is urgency. You want to get back on the right foot and you want to put it behind you and get back to playing well and executing and doing what you know can make you successful. Losing three in a row is frustrating and tough, but we need to find a way to stop the skid and start compiling points again. The race is tight, there is a lot of teams that are within five or six points. Every divisional game is critical," he said.
Jared Spurgeon opened the scoring with a power play marker 5:29 into the contest on the power play to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead.
With Dylan Samberg off for high sticking, Ryan Hartman took control of the disc at the Winnipeg blue line and moved toward the high slot before hitting a wide open Spurgeon who banked the puck in off of Hellebucyk's left pad.
The goal was his 4th of the season.
"Two of their forwards got trapped there and we had a five-on-four and Hartsy (Hartman) made a great play," said Spurgeon.
Mats Zuccarello made it 2-0 just over a minute later when he took a drop pass from Kirill Kaprizov and beat Hellebuyck with a low wrister to score his 16th goal of the season.
The goal was his 16th of the season.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored just over ten minutes into the first when he took a Kyle Connor feed before poking the disc past Jonas Brodin and snapping a wrister past Gustavsson and hitting the post before he knocked it into his own net to make it 2-1 at 10:03.
The goal was his 16th of the season.
Kyle Connor nearly tied it up with just over seven minutes left in the first when he found himself with what appeared to be a wide open net but Gustavsson managed to get a pad on the puck.
Frederick Gaudreau scored just seconds after the Wild killed off a hooking penalty to Mats Zuccarello.
Zuccarello got control of the puck in the neutral zone before banking the puck off the boards to himself on his way into the Jet zone before feeding Gaudreau a perfect saucer pass over a sprawling Kyle Capobianco.
The Wild forward knocked the puck mid-air past Hellebuyck to give Minnesota a 3-1 lead at 8:54 into the second.
Samuel Walker added an empty netter with 2:05 left in regulation to clinch the win for the Wild.
The goal was the first of his NHL career.
The occasion wasn't lost on his teammates, one of whom got him in the face with a towel full of shaving cream during the post-game interview.
"Ya I just kind of held it until it was away and luckily it went in," laughed Walker.
But Jets Head Coach Rick Bowness wasn't laughing afterward.
“I would say it’s like the other things, that the details are off a little bit. It’s not as strong as it once was, but that kind of goes into our whole five-on-five (game) right now. It’s not as strong as it was. Our attention to detail is not there.”
He wasn't having any of the notion that having call ups in the lineup to replace five regular players out with injury as an excuse.
“It’s a scapegoat. They know what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Both clubs see action Thursday as Minnesota hosts Dallas and Winnipeg closes out a two-game homestand against Vancouver.
SHOTS-MINNESOTA 28 WINNIPEG 32
ATTENDANCE-15,325
