GAMEDAY: Jets vs Senators

WINNIPEG -The priority is winning hockey games, but after a month of March that saw the Winnipeg Jets away from home as much as they were, the extra day with their families on Sunday was just as crucial as any practice or meeting.
"When you look at the month of March that we had - you take travel out and the home games out - they were home with their families for two nights," said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. "Priority one is winning hockey games, keeping players ready to win hockey games is priority two, it goes hand in hand. But part of that, a bigger piece of that now, is getting them some connection time with their families."
Now the Jets will try to channel that energy and motivation into the finale of an abbreviated three-game home stand with the Ottawa Senators in town.

Four of the previous five meetings have resulted in wins for the Jets, but the two teams haven't faced off since Feb. 13 - the night Ottawa earned their lone win of the season against Winnipeg.
"When you watch them play, I haven't found them to lull very much. Their play has been very consistent," said Maurice. "Really, what's happened to maybe get hot, is they got a little bit of goaltending and I thought in stretches they didn't have that.
"They play fast, they play hard, they finish checks. They do all the right things to win."

Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal for the Jets, and while Maurice hinted that he may shuffle his forward lines a bit tonight, the Jets' coach said he'll start with the same line-up configuration tonight against Ottawa:
Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Stastny-Dubois-Wheeler
Copp-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thompson-Lewis
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
The Jets head coach said after Sunday's 30-minute skate that he'd be hesitant to make changes to Adam Lowry's line as well as Mathieu Perreault's unit with Nate Thompson and Trevor Lewis.
It's for good reason too. Not only is Perreault's line creating offensive zone pressure, they also haven't allowed a five-on-five goal against this season.
"Knock on wood for that," Perreault said with a grin.
"We take a lot of pride in defending hard. You need a bit of luck for that to happen, they've hit a bunch of posts on us that could have gone the other way.
"It's one of the main goals for our line - don't get scored on, bring energy."
As for the Senators (13-21-4), they come into Winnipeg off a 6-3 win over Montreal on Saturday night.
They have power play goals in consecutive games and are paced by Drake Batherson's 23 points this season.

Overall, the Senators are 3-1-1 in their last five games.
"No team in this league is fun to play against," said Nikolaj Ehlers. "They're always going to be hard games. They're a team that works really hard, they forecheck really hard, they're fast, young, and skilled."
Ottawa also benefitted from having six days away from game action from Mar. 26-31.
In this grind of a season, even the one extra day the Jets had away from game action can be beneficial. That might be the case for Ehlers as well.
He's been held off the scoresheet in four of the last five games, but he has every reason to be confident against Ottawa.
Two of the 25-year-old's four game-winning goals this season have come against Ottawa.
He also has seven points in five games this season against the Senators, so they could be just the team to get him feeling good offensively.
"I've watched my games and I think I've kind of got away from that shoot first mentality," said Ehlers. "The shoot first mentality doesn't mean that 'm going to go down and, no matter what, I'm going to shoot the puck. It's about getting into that shooting position as quickly as possible so it opens up something else, or you have that shot."

With the Jets earning one of a possible four points in the first two games of the home stand, they're eager to get into the win column before heading on the road for a five-game road trip.
"These games against Ottawa have always been exciting games," said Ehlers. "They're fun games to play in because they play that hard. They've proven over the course of the season that they're not a team that quits. We have to be ready for it. We are going to be ready for it. We need to bounce back and get the two points."
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Winnipeg Jets wrap up a home stand tonight against the Ottawa Senators.
Winnipeg is in a stretch of nine of 14 home games.
With the addition of this game against Ottawa, the Jets have 14 games on the schedule in 30 days of April.
Mark Scheifele is fifth in NHL scoring with 44 points (15G, 29A) in 38 games this season.
With Kyle Connor (17), Mark Scheifele (15), and Nikolaj Ehlers (15), the Jets are the only team in the NHL this season with three players that have at least 15 goals.
READ THE GAME NOTES
READ SUNDAY'S COVERAGE