Jets fall to Maple Leafs to begin road trip

TORONTO - In a division as tight as the Scotia North Division, one-goal games will come down to the smallest of details. That proved to be true on Monday, as the Winnipeg Jets dropped a 3-1 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs to open a three-game road trip.
The Jets (1-1-0) finished 0-for-4 on the power play while the Maple Leafs (3-1-0) cashed in on their only power play opportunity.
Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves in the loss. His busiest period was the second, where he faced 22 shots, turning away 20. Kyle Connor scored the lone goal for the Jets, his second of the season, which also came in the second period.

Even still, Connor didn't look back at that second period - where the Jets were outshot 22-6 - fondly.
"It wasn't our best period of hockey. I think all night we were kind of looking for it," Connor said. "That's the good thing about the NHL. We have a game back-to-back, so we can forget about that one."
The Jets were without Patrik Laine, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Laine assisted on Winnipeg's power play marker in the 4-3 overtime win over Calgary last Thursday. With Laine out, the Jets top unit was comprised of Connor, Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Josh Morrissey and Paul Stastny.
"We were moving the puck pretty well, just a couple bounces here and there and maybe a couple more pucks to the net," said Connor. "We definitely have to bury. We had our chances. That's something we definitely want back."

After a scoreless first period, the Maple Leafs power play got the home side on the board first. With five seconds remaining in Sami Niku's holding penalty, John Tavares set up in the high slot and buried a pass from William Nylander for his third of the season.
"It was a shot through a screen. It went off my pad and it went back door right on (Nylander's) tape. He had time to line it up and I slid over," said Hellebuyck. "Looking back now, I might have been able to get on my feet. Nine times out of 10 that guy is ripping that puck and I had that thing smothered. He found a guy open and made the right play."
Toronto extended the lead with 1:21 to go in the middle frame. Justin Holl's point blast squeaked its way through Hellebuyck and sat loose in the crease. Mitch Marner popped out of a pile of bodies and slid it home to make it 2-0.
"They got above us and we still tried to make plays," said head coach Paul Maurice, referring to the second period. "It counters back on you. Anything we had going or opportunities we had to get something going, it just slowed our game down to a point where you're just reacting."
The Jets got on the board 34 seconds later. Connor took a perfect seam pass from Derek Forbort in the slot and quickly snapped home his second of the season to cut the lead to 2-1.
The goal extended Connor's point streak against the Maple Leafs to five games and also gave Forbort his second assist in two games.
"It was a fantastic pass. He found the seam and I just tried to get it off quick," said Connor. "He's a big guy that plays really hard. Our series against Calgary last year, he was tough to play against. There was no easy ice going to the net."
The Jets tried to carry that momentum into the third period, firing 12 shots toward Toronto's Frederik Andersen, but couldn't find the equalizer.
The third period included two power play opportunities for the Jets to tie the game. The best of those came with 5:15 to go with Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly serving a delay of game penalty.
Winnipeg had a ton of possession time, but to no avail. Overall, the Jets had seven shots on four power plays.
"We had really good looks and lots of possession time. I didn't love the first (power play), but I thought the next two we were creating the places we wanted to go with the puck," said Maurice. "We had a slot shot on the first one, so it wasn't bad. Obviously, you need that goal. You need that tying goal."
Marner added an empty net goal to round out the scoring.
The Jets have a chance to get back in the win column on Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators, which marks the first of nine back-to-back sets Winnipeg has on the schedule this season.
ICE CHIPS
With Tucker Poolman and Dylan DeMelo not in the line-up, Logan Stanley played in his first NHL game on Monday night.
The Kitchener, ON product had 11:19 of ice time and three shots on goal in his debut and was paired with Nathan Beaulieu.
"I'm very happy with Logan's debut. He was certainly not the weak link and his reads were good, his gap closure was good," said Maurice. "It didn't look like his first game, so I'm very pleased with the progress that young man has made in a year."