A tight, hard-fought, aggressive, one-goal game turned into a blowout quick in favour of the Winnipeg Jets over the Chicago Blackhawks last night as Nic Petan scored his first goal of the season 11 seconds after Patrik Laine gobbled up his 12th of the campaign at 8:46 of the third period to make it 4-0. That keeps Laine as the NHL's top goal scorer for a few more games.
That's the way in ended to give Connor Hellebyck his first shutout of the season and third of his NHL career. He made 27 saves.
Josh Morrissey opened the scoring with the first goal of the his NHL career, that turned out to be the eventual winner for his first game-winning goal also. Chris Thorburn made it 2-0 in the third also with his first goal of the season. A few personal goose eggs were broken tonight. I glad to see Morrisey get the monkey off his back. I've been watching and waiting for him to develope since the Jets drafted him 13th overall at the 2013 NHL draft. He's having a really good year.
The game was substantial for three reasons. One, it keeps the Jets on the heels of the Central division-leading Blackhawks for first place in the division, as the Jets gain two points on the Hawks and maintain second place in the Central division with 20 points. The Blackhawks sit atop the division with 24 points. Two, it snapped the Blackhawks 11-game undefeated streak in regulation time. It also extended the Jets game point-streak to five.
The Jets goal differential now sits in the positive for only the second time this year after the season-opener against Carolina. Coming into this game they were at 50 goals for and 50 scored against.
The Jets are now 6-0 when leading after two periods. They went 2-5 on the power-play. And amazingly enough they are now 5-0 when killing off a 5-3 disadvantage. The Hawks had the two-man advantage in the third before the Jets decided to light up the scoreboard with the momentum off of killing it.
Mark Scheifele slid the puck across to Morrissey for game-winner which helps him to maintain at least a share of the NHL point-leaders board with 21 points (10 goals 11 assists) along with the Dallas Stars' Tyler Seguin.
Jacob Trouba had to leave the game momentarily after blocking a shot in the neck. Yeah, in the neck. He slid across to block a shot by Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith, but apparently it caught him just enough to miss a shift.
Trouba had a heck of a game. Some nice blocked shots and hustle.
Good game by the Jets. If they can maintain this high-level of play and get some healthy bodies back it could almost make one think they could actually challenge for a division title.
Silly that one.
