Jets Strike First- But Trail Coyotes After 1

The Jets are home to Arizona on Saturday, while the Canucks host Chicago the same night.

Scheifele scored another goal, but it was Chris Thorburn who tallied a shorthanded goal in the third period. “The adrenaline was rushing”. It seemed loud and I just got caught up in the moment. “There were times where things weren’t pretty”. A former all-star junior player with the Portland Winterhawks, Petan scored a goal in Winnipeg’s first game of the season but had gone pointless in 13 games since.

“It was a competitive game”. “Our execution was, at times, good in the game and at times not so good”.

The win though didn’t come without a price as Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec suffered a lower body injury and was reportedly seen walking out of the rink on crutches. Michael Hutchinson earned the win in relief – stopping all seven shots in the third.

After chasing down Michael Stone deep into the Coyotes zone, Thorburn muscled Arizona defenseman off the puck and then flipped a backhand past Anders Lindback from close range.

Winnipeg’s 14 penalty minutes made them the first National Hockey League club to eclipse 300 penalty minutes this season.

The Jets were 0 for 5 on the power play while Arizona scored twice on six chances. Maurice said he was “thinking of taking up cigar smoking” to combat the stress of his team’s discipline issues. “We’ve got to work hard at staying out of the penalty box”.

“I think those first two periods there was a lot of penalty trouble”, added Scheifele. “It seemed like we didn’t get our rhythm going”.

Over the past two games, they have defeated the Vancouver Canucks and the Arizona Coyotes, two middling teams in the weaker Pacific Division, 4-1 and 3-2, respectively, to pull within striking distance of the fifth-place Chicago Blackhawks. But Winnipeg couldn’t make the lead stand up by allowing a pair of Arizona power play goals to trail the visiting Coyotes after 20 minutes of play. Doan deflected a point shot that bounced by Pavelec at 9:30 and Murphy’s hard, high slap shot from just inside the blue line found the top corner at 15:49.