Chiarot's third period goal pushes Jets over Capitals

WINNIPEG -There is a fine line between winning and losing in the National Hockey League.
The most recent example - Wednesday night's tilt between the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals.
With the game tied at one in the third period, Nick Backstrom's breakaway attempt went off the post, crossbar, and Connor Hellebuyck's back and across the goal line before Dustin Byfuglien swept it away from danger.
It was a moment Hellebuyck summed up best.
"A lot of panic," said Hellebuyck. "Lots of panic."

Then just minutes later, Ben Chiarot joined the rush and his shot from the blue line deflected off the shaft of John Carlson's stick, dipped a couple inches, and beat Pheonix Copley on the glove side.
It gave the Jets a 2-1 lead they wouldn't give up. Add in an empty netter from Kyle Connor, and the Jets sealed their third straight win, and fourth in their last five games.

"We've been talking about getting on a bit of a roll here. We were excited. Stanley Cup champions in town, you want to bring your best effort," said Chiarot. "Once we got going and got skating it was a pretty tight game."
Mark Scheifele's team-leading 10th of the season - a power play marker in the second period - was the other Jets marker.
The win improves the Jets to 8-1-1 at Bell MTS Place this season.
"When you have a stand like this, when you're home after getting back from Finland and have a lot of time at home, it's good to get on a roll," said Scheifele. "Tonight was definitely a big one for us."
Jakub Vrana would open the scoring 13 minutes into the opening frame. Streaking up the ice up the right wing, Vrana sent a wrist shot high to Connor Hellebuyck's stick side, beating the Jets goaltender on Washington's eighth shot of the opening period.

The Jets, despite a number of odd-man rushes minutes earlier, had only one shot on goal at the time of Vrana's goal.
The shots on goal finished 10-2 Washington after the first, but the Jets led in attempts 13-12 at five-on-five.
"We just missed the net 10 times in the first period, so it looked like you had nothing going on," said head coach Paul Maurice.
"I thought we were a little bit tight with what we did. I liked where we ended up getting our shots from. You're over the net or you're a little late getting them off, a lot blocked. I thought we were a little bit tentative."
An Alexander Ovechkin interference call just under five minutes into the middle frame gave the Jets the opportunity to tie things up, and they wasted no time doing so. Scheifele won the ensuing offensive zone face-off and went to his spot in the slot. Quick passes from Dustin Byfuglien, to Blake Wheeler, to Kyle Connor at the side of the net opened some space, and when Connor's feed got to Scheifele, he made no mistake.
The assist moved Wheeler's point streak to 11 games, and it was also the third time on the home stand the Jets scored in the first 10 seconds of a power play.
"We have a lot of talented players. It was a great job all around there," said Scheifele. "Buff made a good play, Wheels made a good play, and KC made a good play. When they take away one option, we take advantage of the other one."

Maurice also shuffled the lines in the middle frame, reuniting the trio of Andrew Copp, Brandon Tanev, and Adam Lowry.
"They were all excited to be back together. They're easy to read off for each other. That energy level, we ended up getting another line going in the game. It had an impact," said Maurice.
"That's the advantage of having two pretty clear, defined groups that can play against the other team's best, where one is a heavier group.
"When you put Chiarot and Byfuglien behind Lowry's line as it was constructed after the first period, that's a pretty physical group of players."
The teams would trade chances in the third, with Backstrom's breakaway chance the closest the Capitals would come to taking the lead.
A few short minutes later, the Jets took advantage.
After a Lowry body check caused a turnover in the neutral zone, Tanev zipped a pass to Ben Chiarot joining the play on the left side. His wrist shot deflected off Carlson and past Copley. It was Chiarot's third of the season and first career game-winning goal.
"It's always nice to contribute. Rusty made a good play finding me in the middle. Their D was a little gapped off," said Chiarot.
"There wasn't much to it. Just a lucky shot."

The Jets came up with their third of three successful penalty kills of the night in the dying minutes, and with Copley pulled for an extra attacker, Connor's empty net goal - his eighth goal of the season - provided the insurance marker.
The Jets (11-5-1) wrap up the four-game home stand on Friday night against the Buffalo Sabres.