Jets earn season series sweep of Coyotes

WINNIPEG -Rick Bowness felt the mood on the Winnipeg Jets bench in the third period against the Arizona Coyotes was easy to read.
"They knew what was at stake," Bowness said. "They knew we had to find a way to win this game."
And they did.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Adam Lowry scored for the Jets (40-29-3), while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 29 of 30 shots to push the home side to a 2-1 win, and a sweep of the season series against the Coyotes.
"They're a whole lot better team than people realize," said Rick Bowness, referencing that all three match-ups with Arizona were one goal games, including two 2-1 decisions at Canada Life Centre. "They move the puck really well, there is a four-man rush every time. They're hard to play against."

But the Jets had the answer, and in the process they snapped Arizona's eight-game point streak that saw them on a 6-0-2 run.
More importantly, the Jets put two points in the standings, keeping their cushion over Calgary and Nashville.
"It's just getting back to our identity and not worrying about who we're playing," said Josh Morrissey, who played 23:14 in the game. "Just being aggressive, on our toes and just (being) quicker to loose pucks and quicker to battles, to outman them and I thought we did a good job."

The Jets earned the game's first goal shortly after a penalty kill. Ehlers stole the puck at the Winnipeg blue line near the end of a shift, but had enough in the tank to break in alone. His first shot was stopped by Karel Vejmelka, but Ehlers banged in the rebound for his ninth of the season 4:17 into the first period.
It was just the second time in the last 11 games that the Jets had scored the game's opening goal. Winnipeg has opened the scoring in 38 of 72 games this season, so Bowness isn't too concerned about the recent tough stretch to open games.

"If we came out at the start of every period and we were slow, well that hasn't been the case at all," Bowness said. "We just haven't scored on those starts. Even in Nashville, we were all over them, and they come down and score. You play your way through it."
The next Jets penalty kill came with 9:11 to go in the first, and two sensational plays set up a shorthanded goal for Lowry. First, Neal Pionk came up the right side boards in the Jets end and sent an aerial pass cross-ice to a streaking Morgan Barron. Then, Barron corralled it, and sauced a perfect feed to Lowry who hammered it home. Lowry's third shorthanded goal of the season, and 10th goal overall, made it 2-0 for the home side.

To get two on Vejmelka, who had a 0.953 save percentage in five games against Winnipeg coming into the game, was big for the Jets.
"Yeah, he usually doesn't let in very many here, right? Any time you get a two-on-one, you want to hit it hard and get it above the pad," said Lowry. "Barron made such a great pass, so it made my job pretty easy. It landed flat on my stick and fortunately I got all of it."
Arizona seemed to find their legs in the second, with Barrett Hayton cutting the Jets lead in half with 8:14 remaining in the period. He was able to get to a rebound in front of Connor Hellebuyck and backhand it into the top corner for his 15th of the campaign.
"We stopped attacking. We got soft with the puck," Bowness said of the second period. "We had a couple bad shifts in the second period, we didn't spend any time in their zone because we were changing. We just had no flow to the game whatsoever."

Hellebuyck was busy in the period, as the Jets were outshot 18-3. His best was a paddle save, made in desperation as a previous play had pulled the Jets goaltender from the crease. Then, Michael Kesselring's backhand from just outside the crease rolled toward the goal line, but that's when Hellebuyck's paddle shot out and prevented a goal.
"Just another to add to his highlight reel," said Morrissey. "When they really had their push in the second, he made some massive saves and gave us a chance to regroup in the intermission and to come out in the third and play a lot better."

They certainly did. Natural Stat Trick gave the Jets a 15-5 edge in shot attempts in the third at five-on-five. Winnipeg also earned three power play chances, but weren't able to connect on them to increase the lead.
Still, the Jets stayed with it, and didn't allow a high-danger chance in the final period according to Natural Stat Trick.
"That third period, we played the right way, we did all the little things necessary," said Bowness. "We controlled the pace of the game, we played on our toes, and were a much harder team to play against. We were pressuring them all over the ice. That's Winnipeg Jet hockey."