Jets show some fight against Caps

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This article was published 24/02/2020 (1516 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Winnipeg Jets didn’t deserve to win Tuesday night in the U.S. capital, but an outright defeat wouldn’t have served justice, either.

A 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals was a fair and equitable result for the visitors, who had a sluggish start but rallied with three straight goals to draw even with one of the NHL’s true powerhouse squads. 

The Jets can infuriate with the blandness of some of their performances, such as their back-to-back losses in Buffalo and Philadelphia over the weekend, leaving most to believe they have no business being in the playoff hunt. And then they go out demonstrate some extreme pluckiness under trying circumstances, as they did in haywire Capital One Arena on what was unofficially deemed ‘Alex Ovechkin Night.’

This fight could have been over early, as captain Blake Wheeler admitted. Instead, the Central Division squad, knocked around for 30 minutes, finally showed some pushback. The Jets got goals from Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, who knocked in the tying goal with just 3:14 left in regulation time.

“We just won’t give it up. It could have been a 5-0 game big time. We tie it up to be in the fight, have a chance to win in a really tough building against a team that’s not too far removed from winning a (Stanley) Cup and has their sights on winning another one. It’s a pretty big step in the right direction for us,” said Wheeler.

Already down 2-0 on goals by Ovechkin and Jakub Vrana, the Jets gave up a goal to Garnet Hathaway at 13:25 of the second period to fall deeper into a hole. Defenceman Anthony Bitetto threw a pass up the boards that was intercepted and then allowed Hathaway to sneak in behind him and bury a shot behind goaltender Laurent Brossoit.

On the next shift, Hathaway took a heavy run at Bitetto, who immediately initiated a scrap. The quick reaction had a positive effect on the rest of the group.

“Hell of a battle by our group. Tony Bitetto finally had enough getting… pushed around for a period and a half, you know, dug his heels in the mud and gave a little life to our group. That was the turning point in the hockey game,” Wheeler said.

“They have some guys that have that role. Our team maybe isn’t built like that. They have some Tom Wilsons, their job is to run around and put people on their ass. We don’t really have much of an answer for that, so it was awesome for Tony (to say) enough’s enough. It gave our group a little bit of life. We were able to get a huge goal at the end of the second and carried the momentum into the third.”

Bitetto admitted he wanted to make amends for a poor decision in his own end.

“I was a little frustrated. I mean the goal, I think, was my fault. The third goal. He gets behind me and he bangs it in. He took a nice run at me and I was like, ‘We’ve got to do something.’ I thought it was the right time to do it. A fight is a fight in hockey. I don’t know,” he said.

Bitetto wasn’t scheduled to play in the game. He filled in for Sami Niku, who was injured playing soccer in the bowels of the downtown arena prior to the game. It’s remniscent of when Jets forward Mason Appleton was injured tossing a football before the Heritage Classic outdoor game in Regina.

Head coach Paul Maurice was reluctant to say how Niku’s injury occurred but was forced into a corner.

“I don’t know. (The cause) is out there. It wasn’t the football. That’s all I’ll admit to. There was no football being played. Yeah, he got hurt and couldn’t go. We’ll get it looked at (Wednesday) when we get back,” said Maurice. “I know exactly what it is. Lower body’s what I’ll give you. But I won’t know the extent of it until we get it looked at.

“There’s 31 teams in the league playing soccer as a warm-up. We’ve had our quota of all of these injuries. It was filled three months ago. But certainly I’d like to think we’ve paid it forward to the point where we could get healthy again.”

Winnipeg (32-27-6) headed home after a 1-2-1 road trip and remain below the playoff line in the NHL’s Western Conference. The second half of a home-and-home with the powerful, Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals (39-18-6) is set for Thursday at 7 p.m. at Bell MTS Place.

Ehlers’ goal late in the second period was also a catalyst. He netted his 23rd of the season at 18:33, jumping on a loose puck and firing it behind goalie Braden Holtby to breathe some life into the Jets. Cody Eakin earned his first point since being acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, intercepting a poor clearing pass from Michal Kempny and blasting a shot that was bobbled by Holtby.

Connor made a couple of slick moves to deke out Holtby on a breakaway at 8:39 of the final frame for his team-leading 31st goal of the season. About eight minutes later, Scheifele drove the net and scored his 27th.

Brossoit had a fine night between the pipes, saving his best work in OT when he thwarted four Capitals scoring chances.

The Caps scored three times in a shootout that went six rounds — including the decisive goal by Ovechkin — while Scheifele and Wheeler solved Holtby. Ehlers was stopped on a slapshot from a ways out, a rather odd tactic, giving the hosts the two points.

The pre-game tribute to celebrate Ovechkin’s 700th career goal put a charge through the building, but tally No. 701 almost caused a roof collapse.

Winnipeg has now allowed nine consecutive game-opening goals.

Washington’s other-worldy left-winger created one of those ‘Where were you when?’ moments for Capitals hockey fans just 1:55 into the game. Ovechkin needed a couple of whacks but buried his 43rd of the season after a terrific pass from Evgeni Kuznetsov.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell