GAMEDAY: Jets vs Flames

WINNIPEG -At this time of the season, with just a handful of regular season games left, every single game feels huge.
Tonight's tilt somehow seems even bigger than that.
The Winnipeg Jets lead the Calgary Flames by two points for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference, and while the official start of the Stanley Cup playoffs isn't for another 10 days or so, both teams will leave it all on the ice tonight.
"It's definitely a playoff feel. It's going to be a playoff game tonight, a playoff atmosphere too," said Mason Appleton. "They're going to be putting everything on the line tonight and we're going to have to match that - even one up that intensity."

For the third time on this five-game home stand, the Jets will face an opponent on the back half of a back-to-back. Calgary dropped a 4-3 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks at Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday, snapping their four-game win streak.
"They outplayed Chicago. They had some great opportunities, especially at the end of the game when they pulled their goalie. That game could have flipped very easily," said head coach Rick Bowness. "They played a lot better than the score. They played hard right until the bitter end. That's what they're going to us. That's a Calgary Flames team, they're going to battle every inch of the way for 60 minutes."
The Jets (43-31-3) have used rest to their advantage in the last two games, picking up leads of 3-0 and 2-0 after 20 minutes.
"We've had confident starts. We've got that belief back in the room. When you score that first goal, you can take a breath and say 'let's just keep playing our hockey here,'" said Appleton.
"Scoring the first goal has been instrumental to our success the last couple games, but like I said, we believe in this team and we believe in our offence. Hopefully we can keep that going tonight."
There will only be one change to the Jets line-up from the last couple nights, with Saku Maenalanen drawing in on the right wing with Morgan Barron and Kevin Stenlund. He replaces Karson Kuhlman, who was in that spot against Detroit and New Jersey.
"He's been one of our top four penalty killers all year," said Bowness. "(Appleton) and (Adam Lowry), then he goes back with Kevin (Stenlund). The penalty kill has been victimized by a couple of flukey goals, but we've been giving up more than we had all year."
Connor Hellebuyck is expected to start in goal, with the lines in front of him projected to look like this:
Connor-Dubois-Scheifele
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Wheeler
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Stenlund-Maenalanen
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
On top of the quick starts, what has made the Jets so difficult to handle the last couple games is the face the offence is coming from every line.
In Sunday's 6-1 win over New Jersey, Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice (once on the power play), Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kyle Connor, Nino Niederreiter, and Morgan Barron also added singles.
"It took a long time to get that bit of swagger back. All four lines are really rolling," said Adam Lowry. "That's going to be important going forward. In these tight games, if you can get some secondary scoring, you can get some guys chipping in from the back end, it takes a lot of weight off the top-six guys and usually that's the difference in a game."
Bowness described the feeling in Tuesday's practice as upbeat, no doubt driven by the confidence from how the team is playing of late.
"The guys are feeling good about where our team game is right now," said Bowness. "We want to start tonight like we've started at home the last couple of games and go after them, hopefully get that early lead. That's what we've been able to do the last two home games. That's going to be our mindset tonight."
There will be a significant difference defensively, however. Bowness noted that the size of the Calgary forwards presents a challenge the Jets haven't faced in the last couple of games.
"They're bigger. They're going to attack the net. We're going to have to be really physical around our net," said Bowness. "It's at both nets. Their defence are big and physical. Our forwards have to get there. Around our net, we have to be able to keep them away from the net so Helly can see the puck or get down there and find the rebound. They're a very aggressive team, they're a very physical team."
Winnipeg would love to put up another six goals tonight, but that isn't the expectation. The recipe is the same as the first two games of the home stand - take care of the defensive end, break the puck out efficiently, and capitalize on chances.
In a playoff style game, those chances are going to be hard to come by.
"I expect tonight to be tighter checking, lower scoring, playoff type feel," said Appleton. "If we walk out of here with two points tonight, that will put ourselves in a really good spot."
Puck drop is set for 6:30 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
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