For the second straight season, the Winnipeg Jets swept through the state of the Florida taking both games against the Lightning and Panthers. Tonight, they blanked Florida 3-0 with a solid defensive effort and pushed their win streak to five games. Nino Niederreiter, Nikolaj Ehlers and Adam Lowry scored for the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck recorded his 33rd career shutout. Mason Appleton (2A) and Dylan Samberg (2A) both had multi-point nights for Winnipeg who finish off their three-game road trip in Nashville on Sunday.
BONES IS BACK
Rick Bowness had been away from the Jets since October 23rd and made a surprise return to the team during Friday’s morning skate. Bowness was back behind the bench against the Florida Panthers and said this morning that he saw room for improvement in his teams game. The players must have got the message because they played one of their best all round defensive games of the season to get the win to welcome their coach back.
“They didn’t get a chance in the first period and they’re coming off, that’s a great team over there, it’s a home game for them,” said Bowness.
“So, for us to come out and play that hard in the first period and to limit them to no chances, that’s just a great effort by our team.”
HELLEBUYCK SHINES…AGAIN
The Jets starter wasn’t very busy for the most part through the first 40 minutes of the night. The Michigan product made a huge save in the third period when he stared down Sam Bennett and denied the Panther forward from the slot to maintain the Jets one goal lead. Ehlers and Lowry would score after that to seal the win. Hellebuyck has now four straight games with a save percentage of .900 or better and has done so in five of his last six starts.
EHLERS, WOW!
Not long after Hellebuyck shut down Bennett, Nikolaj Ehlers went to work to give the Jets some breathing room against the Panthers. The Danish forward took a pass from Cole Perfetti at the Jets blueline, carried the puck through the neutral zone and once he got into the Panther zone, slid the puck under Uvis Balinskis, stepped around the Panther defenceman and fired a quick shot high blocker side past Sergei Bobrovsky for the insurance goal. Vlad Namestnikov got the second assist on the Ehlers goal to extend his point streak to six games.