Jets come up flat against high-flying Penguins

Article content

There’s been a lot to like when watching the Winnipeg Jets recently, but a three-game losing streak is all they have to show for it after their latest defeat on Monday.

The Pittsburgh Penguins waddled into town at the end of a three-game road trip across Canada and ground out a 3-1 victory at Canada Life Centre, a game that had some substance on the shot clock for the home team but not enough urgency to make it count at the end of 60 minutes.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Jets come up flat against high-flying Penguins Back to video

“I didn’t like our game tonight,” Kyle Connor said. “I think we could have come out a lot better. A bit sloppy, missed passes, kind of circling and not staying under pucks. I mean, the last three or four games now, we haven’t generated too much.”

Danton Heinen broke a 1-1 tie at 3:33 of the third period to put the Penguins ahead for good. Heinen won a puck back to the blue-line and took off to the front of the net. The point shot would arrive, saved initially by Connor Hellebuyck’s face, but the rebound dropped to Heinen in the slot and he popped it in for his sixth of the season.

Jake Guentzel then wrapped a shot around into an empty net with 2:15 remaining to make it 3-1 as Mark Scheifele was doing his best snowman impression to try and stop it from happening.

The loss was just the second in regulation at home this season for the Jets, entering Monday’s contest with a 7-1-1 record and a three-game winning streak in downtown Winnipeg. They fell to 9-5-4 overall.

“Like (Connor) said, I think we just didn’t stop a lot of pucks,” Andrew Copp said. “We weren’t… it’s hard to just say we didn’t work hard enough or we weren’t intense enough. But that’s kind of what it boiled down to. They won all of the puck battles, we were kind of drifting and then they’re skilled enough where they are going to make plays and capitalize. Just not enough oomph from our game.”

The Penguins, meanwhile, have won three straight, sweeping their Canadian swing with previous wins over Toronto and Montreal — both shutouts.

Tristan Jarry, who made 50 saves across those two wins, stopped another 30 on Monday to improve his record to 8-4-3 despite seeing his shutout streak end at 161:33 in the first period.

Dominic Toninato opened the scoring at 10:27.

Neal Pionk tried to rifle a wrist shot through traffic from the point by the puck got blocked in the high slot. Toninato picked up the loose biscuit, turned and fired a low shot glove side that beat Jarry to make it 1-0.

The Jets came out swinging in the first, outshooting the Penguins 11-5, but even that was a little misleading as four of Pittsburgh’s five shots came from high-danger areas.

“The shots are there, the zone time is there, but we are not heavy enough net-front,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “But we’re talking about a period, for me. Before we blow this thing up; we had a tough third period here. We were pretty good other than that, so this is putting up 47 (against Edmonton), 39 (against Vancouver), a bunch here tonight, but we didn’t play well in the third period. So I’m not drooping our entire offensive game is missing, parts of it is better than it’s ever been, but pucks are just not going in the net. I’m not going to colour the third period for the eight that we’ve played prior to it.”

If not for Hellebuyck, who made 33 saves, it could have been Pittsburgh with a commanding lead heading into the intermission.

Hellebuyck’s absolute thievery of Jake Guentzel with the Penguins on the power play early in the second was the highlight Winnipeg’s No. 1 would like Team USA coach Mike Sullivan to have heading into the Olympics.

A point shot from the Penguins ping-ponged out to Guentzel perched to Hellebuyck’s left. The 28-year-old went down in anticipation of the shot getting through, saved it off his skate and then quickly sprawled to his left rob Guentzel who was sure he had the game-tying goal.

Hellebuyck has been excellent since dropping his first two starts of the year. He came into the game 3-0-2 so far in November and had taken at least in point in his past 10 starts, with a 6-0-4 record.

The loss in regulation halted Hellebuyck from setting a franchise record with an 11th straight game with at least a point.

Guentzel and Hellebuyck’s interactions on the night wouldn’t end with the big save. Guentzel was charged with goaltender interference later in the period after driving the net and plowing over Hellebuyck. The latter was able to shake it off as a large melee ensued to his left.

“Vezina winner and there’s no stop, there’s no turn away,” Copp said. “I’m all for taking the puck hard to the net but it doesn’t seem like there’s any effort to avoid him whatsoever.”

The Jets weren’t able to solve Pittsburgh’s top-ranked penalty kill, going 0-for-2 in the game.  The Penguins have managed to stifle nearly 90% of all power-play attempts so far this season.

Pittsburgh also failed to score on its pair of power-play attempts.

They would tie it in the second period, however, with Jason Zucker scoring his fourth at 14:29 as the Penguins led a rush down the ice as Andrew Copp was just getting back on the ice after serving two minutes for high-sticking.

Evan Rodrigues’ shot after breaching Winnipeg’s blue-line was saved by Hellebuyck but Rodrigues was able to latch onto the rebound, take it around the net and feed Zucker to Hellebuyck’s right to tie it 1-1.

“I thought it flattened out after it went to 1-1,” Maurice said. “But we were slow in the third. We got the lead and got above it. We did not help ourselves with what we did with the puck and then we didn’t have very much.”

Kyle Connor tied for fourth in NHL scoring with 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) coming into the game, was gifted a breakaway with the third nearing its midway point but lost the handle on the deke, managing a shot that Jarry was able to easily steer aside.

“It’s just one of those situations, nine times out of 10, I’m not losing that there,” Connor said. “Just got to be a little sharper.”

At the other end, Rodrigues was stopped point-blank after Heinen’s sharp-angle shot kicked out into the slot.

A small silver lining: the Jets have allowed three goals or fewer in 12 straight now, the longest run in franchise history. It’s of little significance at the moment as the Jets embark on a three-game road trip that will be played over four nights starting in Columbus on Wednesday.

sbilleck@postmedia.com

Twitter: @scottbilleck