Winnipeg Jets at Buffalo Sabres

A roller coaster ride of emotions is one of the many ways you could describe the Winnipeg Jets’ five-game road trip so far. They were dominated 5-1 by the Carolina Hurricanes with rookie netminder Thomas Milic in goal, then bounced back the following night with a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators, thanks in part to the previously nonexistent secondary scoring that finally came alive on Saturday. Will that success carry over into Buffalo? We’ll have to wait and see.

The Jets had the ideal start Saturday in Music City when Gabriel Vilardi opened the scoring just 47 seconds into the contest. Nino Niederreiter added his fifth in the final minute of the first period to make it 2-0, and Cole Perfetti ended his five-game scoring drought in the second to push the lead to 3-0. Nashville attempted a comeback, cutting the lead to 3-2 in the third, but the Jets’ top line shut the door when Kyle Connor restored the two-goal cushion with his 12th of the season. Niederreiter added his second of the night with an empty-netter, and Eric Comrie made 20 saves to help Winnipeg close out November with a win.

The Buffalo Sabres had an interesting November of their own. Some nights they were scoring at will, other nights they couldn’t find the back of the net. They’re 5-5-0 in their last ten and are coming off a 3-2 shootout win in St. Paul over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Beck Malenstyn and Josh Doan scored for Buffalo, Noah Ostlund netted the shootout winner, and Colten Ellis turned aside 22 shots.

Since these two clubs are from opposite conferences, they’ll meet just twice this season, and surprisingly, both of those games come this week, with the second matchup on Friday in Winnipeg.

As for lineup notes, there isn’t much to keep an eye on besides whether Neal Pionk will play and whether Luke Schenn or Colin Miller will be a healthy scratch. Maybe Elias Salomonsson will dress tonight after missing Saturday’s game, we’ll find out this afternoon.

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi

Namestnikov – Toews – Perfetti

Niederreiter – Lowry – Iafallo

Pearson – Barron – Nyquist

Morrissey – DeMelo

Samberg – Schenn

Stanley – Miller

Comrie

Milic

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Puck drop is at 6:30 p.m. CST and you can watch on Amazon Prime.

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