Jets finally put it all together

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This article was published 26/11/2015 (3072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Winnipeg Jets will be shooting for more days like this, as in, which would you like first, the good news or the good news?

The struggling NHL team put a lot of positives on the ice on Black Friday at Xcel Energy Center, getting rookie goalie Connor Hellebuyck a win in his first NHL start by stifling the Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 victory.

The Jets outshot their division rivals 29-15 in their own building and snapped a six-game losing streak (0-5-1) on the road.

The victory also brought Winnipeg back to .500 at 11-11-2 in the Central Division, closing the gap on the Wild ahead of them to one point.

Now, it’s on to Denver, where the Jets will change time zones for a third straight game tonight at Pepsi Center against the Colorado Avalanche.

“As of late we’ve been struggling a little bit with our team defence and I thought tonight we came out and did exactly what we needed to do to get back on track,” said Jets defenceman Tyler Myers. “We need to realize how hard we worked tonight and play the exact same way going into the next game.

“That was more Jets hockey. That’s the way we want to play and we want to continue that.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice said amen to that.

After conducting an all-business practice here Thursday, then huddling with some of his veterans afterward, the coach appeared to get what he hoped for.

“The best way I can describe it is that I understood the game that we played,” Maurice said. “From the bench, and the players did, too. Everybody was where they were supposed to be and if there was a mistake, it was easy to figure out where the mistake was and there wasn’t any cheat in our game.”

Leaders lead: The question to Maurice was about what focus Hellebuyck’s first NHL start might have provided to his team.

He turned the answer straight to his veteran core, a signal he got what he desired from meetings, etc., from the day before.

“It may be a secondary factor, but I think there’s some leadership going on in there, because you’ve got your veteran guys who have pretty high point totals like (Blake) Wheeler and (Bryan) Little and they were under the puck and on it and they were leading by example,” Maurice said.

Buff stuff: Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien revelled in a fine effort in his home state.

He was a force and a factor in his 23 minutes 47 seconds of ice time, assisting on Mathieu Perreault’s game-opening goal on the power play late in the second, then firing a hard shot for his seventh goal of the season from behind the goal line early in the third to make it 2-0.

The bank shot was high enough to give Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk trouble and the puck dropped off his pants and onto its side, barely over the goal line.

Even though Ryan Carter banked in his own shot off Jets defenceman Mark Stuart midway through the third, the Jets had no wilt in them.

Long enough: It had been a month since rookie Nikolaj Ehlers found the back of the net and he made his drought-buster count Friday.

With the Jets defending diligently in the late going, Ehlers was sprung on a breakaway by linemate Chris Thorburn and buried a shot off the post to restore the visitors’ two-goal lead with three minutes to play.

Ehlers had gone 14 games without a goal and now has five on the season.

Shady shots? It’s hard to predict how the NHL will react, but a couple of checks Friday might require further examination.

Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba put quite a wallop on Wild forward Mikael Granlund in the neutral zone. Clearly there was some head contact but Trouba was not going up and Granlund was already bent over some when hard contact came.

Trouba was not penalized for the check.

Minnesota’s Jason Zucker was given an elbowing penalty for contacting Jets’ centre Mark Scheifele up high in the second, again with some head contact. It was the call that led to Perrault’s goal.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca