Jets muster only 13 shots on goal in a disheartening 4-1 loss to the Ducks at Canada Life Centre

The Jets won their 3rd straight home game (now 3 for 3 on the home stand) against the Canucks back on Saturday by a score of 3-2 in overtime. Both teams traded goals in the 3rd before the Jets took the win in overtime, continuing their eight game home stand with another positive result. Tonight, the Jets played their fourth straight game at Canada Life Centre. Now a few days after the NHL trade deadline, Jets fans are getting a chance to once again see their newest acquisitions, Jacob Bryson and Isak Rosen, in action at home. The 26-26-10 Jets took on the 35-25-3 Ducks, a team that entered the game on a 7-3-0 stretch in their last 10 games.

There were no notable change to the Jets line combinations tonight, as they continue to showcase their trade deadline acquisitions. Alex Iafallo stayed on the 1st line, while Gabriel Vilardi remained down on line 2. Isak Rosen was on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, while Cole Koepke, Morgan Barron and Brad Lambert formed the 4th line. With Morrissey back in action, the 2nd pairing is now Dylan Samberg with Elias Salomonsson, while the 3rd pairing is now Haydn Fleury with the newly acquired Jacob Bryson.

Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal, as Hellebuyck continues to find his post-Olympics groove. The Jets lineup continues to deal with several injuries, including Nino Niederreiter, who is very likely out for the rest of the season. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 16-16-9 record, a 2.73 GAA and a .902 SV%. Tonight’s game started out scoreless through 20 minutes, before the Jets opened the scoring in the 2nd. The Ducks responded with three quick goals and controlled most of this game without the Jets responding, eventually ending the Jets three game win streak.

1st Period

Tonight’s game opened with a rather uneventful opening 20 minutes. The Jets got the first powerplay of the game at the 11:31 mark after Beckett Sennecke was called for tripping. The top unit went to work, but the Jets couldn’t get any real scoring chances on this advantage. After this powerplay, the remainder of the 1st period was mostly controlled by the Ducks. Shots on goal after 20 minutes played was 8-2 Ducks, as Hellebuyck did well to keep this game scoreless.

It really wasn’t the quality of hockey the fans would’ve like to see at Canada Life Centre, but there was still plenty of time to make this game interesting.

2nd Period

The 2nd started with the Ducks getting the first few chances, and they were now outshooting the Jets 12-2. Shortly after these chances, Morgan Barron opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the season. After one chance from Barron following a dump in, Barron got the puck to Cole Perfetti who sent it back to the point for Elias Salomonsson, who fired a shot on goal. Barron was well positioned in front and deflected the puck past Lukas Dostal, giving the Jets a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately the Jets lead didn’t last very long, as things turned from good to bad within just two minutes. Tim Washe tied the game on a rebound. 14 seconds later, Ryan Poehling deflected a shot from the point past Hellebuyck, and suddenly it was 2-1 Ducks.

The Jets tried to regroup after these two quick goals, but less than two minutes later Alex Killorn made it 3-1 for the Ducks after a turnover near the Jets blue line. The Ducks attack was finally paying off, as shots on goal halfway through this game were 18-7 Ducks, and the Jets needed to get some chances of their own to have any chance of getting back in this game.

The Jets failed to get much of a response to these three goals in the 2nd. Adam Lowry took the Jets first penalty of the game with around 5 minutes left in the 2nd. The Ducks couldn’t make it 4-1, but Hellebuyck had to stay sharp in order to keep this game within reach. Shots on goal after 40 minutes of play were 28-7 for the Ducks, who seemed to be in control of this game after three goals in 2:44.

3rd Period

The 3rd opened with the Ducks taking a penalty 40 seconds after puck drop, but the Jets couldn’t capitalize on this opportunity. Even though the man advantage should’ve given the Jets some momentum, it pretty much didn’t, as the Ducks continued to be the better team. With 10 minutes to go in this game, shots on goal were 32-10 for the Ducks.

Jets fans were getting impatient with their team not getting hardly any shots on goal, as you could hear a big cheer as they finally reached 10 shots on goal. With just over 5 minutes remaining, Cole Perfetti was called for high sticking, leaving the Jets down a man late in this game. Lucky for them, Beckett Sennecke took an interference call not much later.

With 3 minutes to go and now back to 5 on 5, the Jets got ready for their final push. Shots on goal were 33-13 at this point, but the Jets were still just a shot away from being a shot away from a tie game. The Jets showed some life with the net empty, but they didn’t get many more chances before Jackson LaCombe ended this game with a long range empty net goal with 26 seconds remaining.

The Jets just weren’t in this game at all as soon as the Ducks got those three quick goals in the 2nd period. Even without that stretch of three goals, the Ducks were the better team for the big majority of this game. Final shots on goal were 34-13 for the Ducks, a wild difference. Looking back into Jets 2.0 history (not including the Thrashers), the 13 shots on goal is just one more than their franchise fewest in a game (12).

Up Next

After tonight’s result the Jets will reset for a day, before continuing their season-long eight game homestand (from March 3rd to 17th) on Thursday night. Their regular season schedule continues at Canada Life Centre with a game against the struggling New York Rangers. Puck drop for this game will be just after 7:00 pm CST. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the upcoming any post-trade deadline news), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.

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