GAMEDAY: Predators at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets captured their third straight victory as they beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Saturday night. The Nashville Predators will visit the Canada Life Centre for the last game of the Jets two-game homestand and the first game of a back-to-back set on Monday night.

The Jets trailed 2-0 to Ottawa on Saturday in the second period before scoring four unanswered goals.

“I liked a lot of what we did, I liked our start again up until they got their power play goal and then kind of took over at the end of the first. But second period we didn’t give up a five-on-five chance like that,” said Scott Arniel.

“Really kind of got our game, got ourselves back into that game. And then, you know, anytime you come back and win hockey games are always, you always feel good about them, but at the same time, you like to get out in front and kind of run away with it.”

Nashville lands in Winnipeg looking to bounce back from a 7-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday. The Predators remain in seventh spot in the Central, just three points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks. The Predators won the only meeting this season with the Jets on November 23, 4-1.

“They’re still a good team, they have a lot of great talent. I mean if you look up and down their lineup there, some of the players find their groove, scoring some goals,” said Nino Niederreiter.

“And I think that’s something that we are all aware of, that they’re a good team.”

Since the Jets dropped four in a row, they have gone 8-2-1 and have a five-point lead on Minnesota for top spot in the division. Arniel has been impressed with the way his team has handled the peaks and valleys of this NHL season which is almost at the halfway mark.

“We don't know what's going to happen moving forward and it's a busy schedule. Until you kind of get into the second half of the season, get into the playoffs, the hockey changes, it becomes a different game,” said Arniel.

“We're just trying to build a product here, we're trying to build a consistency, that we know when we're at our best and we're doing it, playing it to a tee, that we will have success.”

Arniel was not tipping his hand with regards to what his lineup will look like tonight or who is starting goaltender will be. The Jets have had optional skates the last two days. As they head into a set of back-to-back games, Arniel did say he will be using all seven of his defencemen in the coming days.

“At the end of the day, this is three in four, and then it's going to turn into four in six. Again, it's the league. It's where we are. January for everybody's going to be busy, prior to the Four Nations, so just take it one at a time, get ourselves ready to go,” said Arniel.

“We would like to, hopefully it's one of those game where we don't have to overload those top three. But it's hard when, like (Saturday) when there's a lot of specialty teams and all three of those guys are out there a lot, whether they're killing or on the power play. So, we're going both kind of what's happening now.”

The Jets top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi has played the most minutes together of any line in the NHL and they also lead the league in expected goals. Since the start of December, the trio have combined for 53 of the 118 points scored by the team. There have been just four games this season where none of the trio recorded a point in a game.