100 reasons to be hopeful

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/03/2018 (2219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Patrik Laine’s bruise was big news in Winnipeg for about 72 hours but quickly morphed into little more than a footnote Friday night.

The Jets forward was, indeed, a player against the Anaheim Ducks despite all indications to the contrary just a day before.

But Kyle Connor, another of the team’s talented shooters, stole the headline from him.

The 21-year-old from Shelby Township, Mich., fired his second overtime winner of the week to lift the Jets to a 3-2 victory over the visiting Ducks.

Connor stole puck from Adam Henrique near the Anaheim bench and burst out on a odd-man rush with Mark Scheifele. Connor flipped the puck to Scheifele and got it back, rifling his 28th goal through John Gibson’s pads at 3:16 of the three-on-three session.

“It feels good. Every time you score in this league it’s a good feeling,” said Connor. “I’m just focusing on getting better each game and that’s our biggest focus on the team.”

Asked to explain his hot hands of late: “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. If I knew I’d be doing it every time. I’m trying to focus on the little things,” said Connor.

“I think that translates for our whole line. We’re doing those things well defensively and we’ll get our chances and eventually we’ll bury them.”

Nikolaj Ehlers scored his 28th in the first period, while Scheifele also scored, his 22nd, early in the second period and set up the other two Jets tallies.

“They’re talented players,” Scheifele said, giving props to the speedy Ehlers and Connor. “When you give them a chance in the slot they’re going to bury it, so they’ve been improving each and every game. They’ve been awesome for us.”

The Jets (45-19-10) set a franchise record with the win, earning their 100th point of the season. The Central Division’s second-place club is four-for-four on its current six-game home stand, while snapping Anaheim’s four-game winning streak in the process.

The Ducks (38-24-13) are still grasping the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Connor was the finisher just three nights ago, ripping a shot past Los Angeles goalie Jack Campbell in OT in a 2-1 triumph over the Kings.

Laine, meanwhile, who left Tuesday’s game early after taking a blast off a foot, had plenty of bullets in the chamber and fired at will against Gibson from some promising vantage points but couldn’t hit the mark. He was stopped five times, so the 19-year-old winger’s goal count stays at 43, still one back of his childhood idol, NHL goal-scoring leader Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Blake Wheeler had two helpers, upping the Jets captain’s assist total to 64, tying him with Philadelphia Flyers centre Claude Giroux for the NHL assists lead.

The Jets swarmed the Ducks for much of the night but Gibson was brilliant, stopping 39 shots.

Wheeler credited the puckstopper with a tremendous effort.

“You play an entire game in the offensive zone, it’s hard to get frustrated. We jumped on them early and we were just able to sustain a lot in their zone and didn’t quite get the bounces we wanted or get one by their guy (Gibson),” said Wheeler. “Tip your cap to him, he played well. We had a lot of zone time, they kept us to the outside a little bit. We couldn’t get in there and get a couple of better looks.”

Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle, a former Jets 1.0 blue-liner and Manitoba Moose bench boss, said his club was lucky to even get to the extra session.

“They had the puck more than we did. We were very, very fortunate to get out of this game with one point. Simple as that,” said Carlyle. “Our goaltender stole us a point tonight. We didn’t have a lot of energy.

“(The Jets) were skating much quicker, much stronger, and they dominated the play territorially and the shots.”

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck wasn’t tested in overtime but made a game-saver off Ryan Kesler with less than 20 seconds left in regulation. He finished with 16 stops.

Ducks centre Derek Grant opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period. Ehlers, just 55 seconds later, and Scheifele, early in the second period, replied for Winnipeg.

Nick Ritchie tied the game 2-2 with 9:43 left in the third period.

Laine left during the second period of Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles after taking a hard shot off the back of his left foot from Kings defenceman Alec Martinez.

The club offered no update on his condition Wednesday, however, head coach Paul Maurice was pretty firm Thursday the Finnish teen would not play against either the Ducks or Nashville Predators on Sunday evening.

But he made a rather quick improvement, and was a surprise participant in the Jets’ morning skate, taking line rushes with centre Paul Stastny and winger Ehlers without any obvious signs of discomfort

Laine was ready, willing and able, and the team physician supplied the all-clear sign, and Laine went out and did just about everything but score. He also made a nice defensive play with the score knotted 2-2, sliding to break up a two-on-one rush.

NOTES:

Winnipeg defenceman Toby Enstrom suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and didn’t play in the third.

Ducks centre Ryan Getzlaf was a late scratch after coming down with flu-like symptoms.

The Jets continue the homestand Sunday when the division-leading Nashville Predators pay a visit to Bell MTS Place. Game time is 6 p.m.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell