Jets complete season series sweep of Chicago

WINNIPEG - It would appear the player break was exactly what the Winnipeg Jets needed.
They came out flying in their first game in 12 days, and earned a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks to sweep the season series, and push their record to 33-19-1.
"The last two days of practice we had a lot of life in practice so you could sense we would come out with some good jump tonight," said Blake Wheeler, who led the way with two goals and an assist. "Our team moves well, and when we're moving like that it can create some time and space and that is where we can make some plays."
Along with Wheeler's two goals, Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele also lit the lamp for the Jets, while Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 31 of 32 shots.
It was quite a performance for the Jets squad who not only had energy coming out of the break, but were also buoyed by the fans inside Canada Life Centre, who had plenty of time to get riled up with a 9 pm CT puck drop on a Saturday night.

"They really brought it tonight. Maybe it was the six dollar beers before gametime, I don't know," Hellebuyck laughed. "They really brought it tonight. It was awesome. You could feel that."

All-Star Morrissey kept his momentum from the first 52 games going as he opened the scoring with his 11th of the season. A nice pinch at the blue line, and an even better toe drag at the top of the left circle gave him space to walk into the slot on his backhand. Morrissey's backhand got past Petr Mrazek with Adam Lowry standing on the doorstep.
"We get out of that first period and, again, we're not happy with how we finished the period, so it was huge to get that goal to give us a boost and get us going again," said head coach Rick Bowness. "Mo steps up again and makes the big play. It was a hell of a play and a great goal."
Morrissey factored in on the second goal of the night as well, setting up Kyle Connor for a one-timer that Wheeler tipped past Mrazek to make it 2-0. The power play goal, which came 7:33 into the middle frame, snapped a 1-for-22 skid for the Jets on the man advantage dating back to January 22.
"We had some really grade-A looks, their goalie made a couple of really, really good saves," said Wheeler. "We could have had a couple there and it was nice to keep some pucks in and win some battles, and those little things tend to pay off when you're able to hem-in the PK for an extended period of time."

The assist also gave Morrissey 44 helpers on the season, tying him with Toby Enstrom for the most assists in a season by a defenceman in franchise history.
Scheifele made it 3-0 at 12:09, as he finished a three-way passing play that started with Nikolaj Ehlers finding Wheeler with a cross-ice pass from the left wing to the right. Wheeler spotted Scheifele joining late, and hit him with a seam pass back on the right side of the ice, and Scheifele's blast beat Mrazek for his 32nd of the campaign.
"Whenever I get the puck I am always looking for him," said Wheeler. "It's no different, we've scored a lot of goals that way over the years and when I get that puck on the right side my first look is to see where he is and he was kind of coming right down the slot. You give him the puck there."
Tyler Johnson got Chicago on the board 2:08 into the third, lunging for a loose puck and swatting it home just past the outstretched leg of Hellebuyck.
It was exactly the push the Jets were expecting from a Chicago team playing their third game after the break.
"They might have got a little bit of momentum (off their goal) but I don't think we took the foot off the gas at all," said Hellebuyck. "I thought it was a good 60. They've got some good scorers over there. You've got to imagine they're going to push back at some point, so that was their push."
Hellebuyck, fresh off his third All-Star appearance, made eight saves in the third. It wasn't his busiest period of the night, but it certainly seemed like the most important. He kept Chicago at one while the Jets found their legs again.

"We bent a little bit too much and when you bend a little bit too much like that you need big saves and he certainly did that for us tonight," Bowness said. "For us to come out and get two points out of a game that we knew was going to be a battle - and it was, they made it hard for us in that third period and the last half of the first - and the bottom line is we got them and now we get ready for Seattle."
Wheeler's empty netter with 25 seconds left gave him 14 on the season and cemented the win, which was the ideal way to kick off the final 30 games of the regular season.
Before the Seattle prep begins, some rest is in order, as the game ended just before midnight.
"Typically, we don't see these until playoff time. But it is what it is," said Wheeler. "I think it's the only time this year. Both teams have to do it and you can't really complain too much. You still have to come in and play hockey games. We'll play at 10 if we have to."