WINNIPEG – Tyler Toffoli and Colin Miller made their Winnipeg Jet debut tonight and were part of an impressive 3-0 win over the Washington Capitals at Canada Life Centre. Neal Pionk, Alex Iafallo and Kyle Connor scored for Winnipeg (41-18-5) who moved into sole possession of second place in the Central Division. Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and hit the 30-win mark for the fifth time in his career. The Jets will host the Nashville Predators on Wednesday.
GUARANTEED RESPONSE
The players and coaching staff obviously were not happy with the performance on Saturday which led to a 5-0 loss in Vancouver. Rick Bowness did say today that he had full faith that they’re going to respond, and his team delivered on that. The Jets only gave up five high danger scoring chances at five-on-five and shut down a Capitals team that had been averaging 3.69 goals per game since January 27.
“We talked about the (Canucks) game, we watched some clips and saw areas where we could clean up,” said Adam Lowry.
“I think we got off to a better start. We got behind the eight ball against Vancouver. Tonight, our first ten minutes were great, we had some chances, we got the lead which is kind of new for us. We haven’t been scoring a whole lot in the first period.”
FIRST GOAL HUGE
The Jets have the best win percentage in the league when they score first and are now 27-3-1 when getting the game’s first goal. The Jets would take of business at 10:05 of the opening frame when Neal Pionk skated in from right point and would take a pass from Mason Appleton and beat Charlie Lindgren for his 5th of the season. Pionk ended his 20-game goalless drought with the eventual game winning goal.
