Jets victory over Stars signals return to top-flight form

DENVER — The Rick Bowness blueprint was in full effect for the first time in a long time.

There were glimpses of it in recent weeks and it’s been closer during the early stages of the five-game winning streak these Winnipeg Jets have been on since a victory over the Los Angeles Kings on April 1.

Thursday’s 3-0 blanking of the Dallas Stars was reminiscent of a December run that pushed the Jets onto the radar as a legitimate contender.

This was the most complete effort since the victory over the Boston Bruins in the final game before the Christmas break and would be given consideration as the best game of the regular season so far.

“For the most part our puck management. Everyone seemed to be together,” said Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon. “We talked about being connected and having the defence with the forwards, the D partners together, just little things — whether it was on breakout or neutral zone.

“That was one of our, if not our most complete game of the year which is nice to have that confidence at this time of the year. Pressure was a big part of it, I think our attention to detail and understanding that they’re a good team, they’re not going to give you much, and we took advantage of when we got our bounces.”

That this type of effort came against a Stars team that had won 10 of the past 11 and 15 of the previous 18 to create some separation atop the Central Division standings is what made it even more impressive.

“It’s massive,” said Dillon. “Those are the measuring stick games for us where we want to see where we’re at. We had a tough spell there a couple weeks back, and you never want that to linger any longer than it has to. Hopefully we can continue to take the confidence of beating one of the best teams in their building.”

Naturally, it begs the question: can the Jets do it again as they get set to close out this four-game road trip with another marquee matchup against Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. CITY, TSN, CJOB)?

“That’s the secret sauce right there,” said Dillon. “We know what works for us. It wasn’t for a lack of goal scoring, we’re still able to get a couple on the board. We’re still able to play solid defensive hockey. Dallas is a good team and they’re going to get some opportunities. Colorado is a good team and they’re going to get some opportunities. I think limiting them and not beating ourselves is the biggest thing. When we’re doing that, we’re setting ourselves up positively.”

If the Jets can follow that formula, the chances of the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the likely matchup with the Avalanche will be played at Canada Life Centre instead of Ball Arena.

Both teams have three games remaining in the regular season and boast identical records of 49-24-6, though the Jets hold the tiebreaker due to a league-leading 43 regulation wins.

“You’re not winning a Stanley Cup (on Saturday), but at the same time we would love to get home-ice advantage in the playoffs, at least for the first round anyway,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. “We certainly feel that our crowd and our arena is a tough one to play in in the playoffs. We think that would be an advantage, so of course we want to play well. It’s a real chance that it’s looking like we’ll play these guys in the first round anyways, so we want to bring our best game and sort of show what a seven-game series would be like.

“No. 1, we want to win and put ourselves in the driver’s seat but also, with us most likely playing them in just over a week’s time, it would be nice to play the right way and have our game in a place where they know it’s going to be a tough, seven-game series.”

Niederreiter not quite ready

Jets winger Nino Niederreiter had a chat with Bowness near centre ice after the formal portion of Friday’s practice was complete and the decision was made to hold him out for a fifth consecutive game with a left leg laceration that was the result of a skate cut

“Yeah, he’s skating better. He’s getting stronger every day and feeling better every day. He’s just not quite there.” said Bowness, noting the two-day break before the next game against the Seattle Kraken played a role in the decision. “It’s huge. When you have stitches where he has them, it just gives him time to heal better. We’re not going to put him out there unless he’s 100 percent. He’s not 100 percent, so we need those extra days.”

David Gustafsson jumped into the lineup on Thursday and provided his best Niederreiter impression while filling in with captain Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton.

Not only did Gustafsson get to the blue paint to be in position for the puck to go in off his skate, he finished the game with three shots on goal and four hits.

“He played strong on the boards and he was good on the forecheck, he had a good stick, his reloads were good, his reads were good,” said Bowness. “He battled hard is what he did. He’s a good fit for that line because that’s how they play.”

Bowness said the Jets plan was to dress the same skaters on Saturday, though a couple of players are banged up so there could be one extra defenceman and one extra forward taking the pre-game warmup.

Lowry, Appleton, centre Sean Monahan and defencemen Neal Pionk and Dillon used Friday as a maintenance day.

The Avalanche are expected to get forward Mikko Rantanen back after he missed the past two games in concussion protocol.

The goalie matchup is expected to be Connor Hellebuyck for the Jets and Alexandar Georgiev for the Avalanche.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld