Kyle Connor’s 35th and 36th goals of the season lead the Jets to a 2-1 win against the Blue Jackets

The Jets couldn’t solve Jake Oettinger on the road against the Dallas Stars on Thursday, losing 3-0. The loss definitely hurt the Jets playoff odds, but tonight in Columbus the Jets looked to rebound with a win against the Blue Jackets. The Jets entered Saturday afternoon three points out of the 2nd wildcard spot in the Western Conference, with just seven games to go. The 32-31-12 Jets took on the 38-26-12 Blue Jackets, a team in the middle of an intense four way tie for the 2nd wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Jets line combinations looked slightly different than last game. Adam Lowry remained as the 2nd line centre. Cole Koepke and Brad Lambert stayed on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews. Isak Rosen, Morgan Barron and Parker Ford formed the 4th line. With Neal Pionk back in the lineup, the defense pairings are now Josh Morrissey with Dylan DeMelo, Dylan Samberg with Pionk, and tonight Jacob Bryson with Haydn Fleury. Elias Salomonsson is in concussion protocol.

After a third straight quality start against the Stars, Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal. The Jets lineup still has four players out due to injuries: Elias Salomonsson, Colin Miller, Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 20-21-11 record, a 2.81 GAA and a .898 SV%. Tonight’s game started with a super early Blue Jackets lead, followed by a pair of Kyle Connor goals to lead the Jets to victory on this Saturday night.

1st Period

The Blue Jackets got on the board early tonight, scoring on the first shot of the game from either team. Just 77 seconds after the puck dropped, Mason Marchment collected the puck after a bit of a “broken play” behind the Jets goal and set up Ivan Provorov for his 9th goal of the season.

The Jets got going after this unfortunate early deficit, creating the next handful of scoring chances in the first half of the opening period. This was a fast paced 1st period, with both teams managing to stay out of the penalty box. Provorov’s opening goal ended up being the only goal in the opening frame, as the Jets continued to trail 1-0. Shots on goal after 20 minutes were 8-5 Jets, and the hits were 18-9 for the Jets, who played a physical game early on.

2nd Period

The Jets started where they left off at the end of the first by getting the first few chances to start the 2nd period. The Blue Jackets failed to create any offence in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd, and the Jets were now leading in shots on goal 13-5. Just before the 11:00 mark, the Blue Jackets took the first penalty of the game, a tripping call on Danton Heinen.

This powerplay was a great chance for the Jets to finally equalize this game, but their were no shots on goal on this man advantage. The Blue Jackets finally got their first scoring chance (and shots in the 2nd) with around three minutes left, where Hellebuyck made a pair of nice saves.

With 1:46 left in the 2nd, Kyle Connor scored his 35th goal of the season to tie this game at one. Connor made a nice play to enter the zone after getting the puck from Neal Pionk. Connor gave the puck to Mark Scheifele behind the net before getting the puck back as he cut towards the goal and wristed one past Jet Greaves to make it a 1-1 game.

The Jets finally got rewarded for an overall strong 2nd period. At the end of 40 minutes it was all tied up at one, and the Jets had to have liked their chances in the 3rd if they played the same way they did in the 2nd. Shots on goal with 20 minutes remaining were 17-8 Jets, as they outshot the Blue Jackets 9-3 in the 2nd period.

3rd Period

Both teams were looking to get that important go ahead goal, resulting in a “lower event” first half of the 3rd period. Shots on goal in the 3rd period were only 2-2 with 10 minutes remaining, as both teams played in “shutdown mode” whenever needed to preserve the score as a tie.

With just over 9 minutes remaining, the Jets took a 2-1 lead. Mark Scheifele picked up his 2nd assist of the night (and 60th assist of the season!) as he found Kyle Connor near the faceoff dot for a signature Connor one timer shot that went past Greaves.

Connor’s 2nd of the game and 36th of the season gave the Jets a much deserved lead after continuing to be the team controlling most of the play. Hellebuyck, despite not being busy, remained sharp in goal to keep the Jets in the lead heading into the final few minutes of the game.

The Blue Jackets weren’t able to pull the goalie until 1:25 left in the game. Connor almost picked up his hat trick into the empty net, but didn’t quite reach the puck in time. The Jets took their only penalty of the whole game with 8.3 seconds left, a tripping call on Scheifele. Hellebuyck made a game saving save on Adam Fantilli with 3 seconds left, and the Jets held on for the 2-1 win.

One glaring stat from tonight (which didn’t affect the result) was that the Jets only went 9/33 from the faceoff dot. With the win, the Jets are now currently one point out of the 2nd wildcard spot with six games remaining. Tonight was a game the Jets pretty much had to win to stay in the wildcard battle, and they did just that with a good performance in Columbus.

Up Next

Following the final game of this four game road trip, the Jets will reset for a day before returning home to Winnipeg. Their regular season schedule continues on Monday with a visit from another team fighting for the 2nd wildcard spot in the West, the Seattle Kraken. Puck drop for this game will be just after 6:30 pm CDT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the latest playoff odds), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.

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