Morgan Barron opened the scoring 5:59 into the first period, but the Jets quickly gave up three straight goals in less than four minutes, giving Boston a 3-1 lead. Alex Iafallo capped off the five-goal opening period with his fifth of the season to make it 3-2 Bruins after 20 minutes.
Hampus Lindholm wired home his second of the season in the second period to make it 4-2, before Winnipeg struck late in the stanza on the power play, with Gabriel Vilardi scoring his 14th to pull the Jets within one. Elias Lindholm restored Boston’s two-goal cushion late in the third period, and David Pastrnak capped off his four-point night with an empty-net goal to seal the 6-3 win for the B’s.
The loss drops Winnipeg to .483 on the season at 14-15-1.
Special teams struggles
It was a similar story against Boston, except the Bruins scored back-to-back power play goals in the first period just 2:04 apart. Pastrnak ripped a shot past Eric Comrie from the top of the right circle to tie the game at 1-1 with his 12th of the season, before Casey Mittelstadt put Boston ahead with his seventh following a clean setup from Mason Lohrei.
Vilardi did score on the power play for the Jets, but they failed to capitalize on three other opportunities.
Bursts of energy
How many times over the past couple of weeks have we seen the Jets get burned by goals coming minutes, or even seconds, apart?
On Dec. 1 in Buffalo, they gave up two goals in 15 seconds in the first period. On Dec. 6 in Edmonton, they surrendered two in 1:47. Tuesday against Dallas, two more came in the opening 2:31 of the second period, and now against Boston, the Jets allowed two power play goals in 2:04.
This has become a troubling trend, and it’s absolutely killing this team, especially when they’re trying to mount late pushes to tie games. It’s a big reason why the Jets already have six one-goal regulation losses this season.
Sinking
At this point, the Jets need something, anything, to get going quickly, or they risk finding themselves at the bottom of the league and miles out of a playoff spot by the New Year.