It wasn't a total domination, as all the stats were pretty close in every department. But it was Bryan Little's face-off percentage and the fore-checking-especially by the fourth line of Joel Armia, Adam Lowry and Shawn Matthias that helped the Jets out to a strong start and defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 at the United Centre. Nick Petan was his usually pesky self as well, who continues to contribute and continues to be underrated.
The Jets took control in the corners and pretty much owned the neutral zone tonight. This intelligent road-game defense is the reason why the Jets are now 8-4-2 against the Hawks in their last 14 meetings and 9-4-2 against Central division opponents this year. The good guys are now at .500 with a 17-17-3 record for 37 points.
In their last five games, the Jets are 4-1. They sit fifth in the Central division and remain one point behind Los Angeles for the second wild card spot. They trail the Calgary Flames by three points for the first wild card. The St. Louis Blues lead the Jets by four points for the third and final divisional spot.
Blake Wheeler opened the scoring with his 12th. Mark Scheifele apparently tipped in the winning goal from a blast from Jacob Trouba, but even on the slow-motion instant replay, it looked to me that the puck beat Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford clean off of Trouba's stick. I guess the statisticians saw something I didn't. Drew Stafford added the insurance marker 2:27 into the third. It was Stafford's third of the season.
Dustin Byfuglien missed a glorious chance when he was in all alone on Crawford late in the second period, but the pass was just behind him and rolling, so he was unable to settle it down before he ran of real estate in front of the Chicago net-minder.
Patrik Laine almost had his 20th on an attempt at the empty net vacated by Crawford, only to deflect it off of the left post.
Connor Hellebyck continues to stifle the Hawks this season, as he made 34 saves for his third win against the Blackhawks in as many tries this campaign. If it wasn't for his defense abandoning him on the Hawks only goal by Artem Anisimov, Helle would have garnered his second shutout over the Hawks this season.
