Jets have 'backs against the wall' after Game 3 defeat

MONTREAL - An inch here, or an inch there, and Game 3 between the Winnipeg Jets and the Montreal Canadiens could've been a little different.
With the score 1-0 Montreal, both Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler hit the crossbar in the second period for a Jets team desperate for an offensive reward.
Those pucks stayed out, then the Canadiens turned that 1-0 advantage into a 5-1 victory, and a 3-0 series lead.
"I was dead certain that it went in. I thought it hit the back-bar or the goalie camera, the camera in the net," said Wheeler. "It felt like I scored, t's a 1-1 hockey game, and it kind of changes the complexion of things."

Adam Lowry scored the lone goal for the Jets, the first puck they were able to get past Price - and the crossbar - in nearly 100 minutes of game time.

For a team so gifted offensively, the difficulty to generate the offence they want is tough to take - especially during the Stanley Cup Playoffs - but they know with their backs against the wall, it can't consume them.
"We all know the body of work Carey (Price) has had throughout his career. He's a world-class goalie," said Lowry. "A couple inches here or there, it's a couple more by. It's continuing to kind of stick and persevere, and we'll be able to come out of his offensive slump that we're in."
For the third straight game in the series, Montreal opened the scoring. This time it was Corey Perry, whose third of the postseason came 4:45 into the first period. Perry picked up a loose puck behind the net and wrapped it around, and his shot went off the stick of Winnipeg defenceman Jordie Benn and past Connor Hellebuyck.
Montreal hasn't trailed since they lost Game 4 to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round - a streak they extended in Game 3 against Winnipeg.

Heading into Monday's Game 4, the Jets feel changing that stat could be the start of a momentum turn.
"Hopefully one goes off of one of their sticks and ricochets into the net and we'll take a lead and see how it looks from there," said Wheeler. "You can't reinvent the wheel tonight. You can't start over and try to do something completely different. I think there's some things in our game that we really like, some things we can clean up certainly, and hopefully we get a bounce to go our way."
In the second period, Wheeler and Ehlers found iron, and those missed opportunities were costly.
Artturi Lehkonen finished off a scramble of sticks and bodies in front of Hellebuyck with 10:36 left in the second period to increase the Canadiens' lead to 2-0.
Then, for the second straight game of the series, the Canadiens tallied a shorthanded marker. This time, it was Joel Armia who capitalized on a turnover and came up the ice on a two-on-one. He kept and toe-dragged around a sliding Josh Morrissey, and sent a wrist shot past Hellebuyck to make it 3-0 Montreal.
Then, with 2:09 left in the second, the Jets finally beat Carey Price - and the crossbar.
Mathieu Perreault sent a perfect backhand pass from the right-wing side to Lowry on the back door side for Lowry's second of the series.
That cut the Montreal lead to 3-1.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice is looking for that offensive confidence early in Game 4.
"When you're having a hard time scoring you've got to push early as hard as you can, at least to get the good feeling," said head coach Paul Maurice. "Get the zone time, get pucks to the net, some chances, some looks and then your confidence will grow from there."
But the Jets couldn't build on that offence in the third, as the Canadiens added a power play goal from Nick Suzuki, then another shorthanded goal - this one into an empty net - from Armia.
Now Winnipeg's backs are against the wall.
They know they can't get three games back all at once.
It just starts with one.
"We know the situation, we know what's at stake here," said Lowry. "It's a game at a time, as cliché as that is, it's about winning the next one. We expect to come out strong tomorrow. That's all we can do."
And you can bet the head coach will have a speech ready to go.
"That'll be delivered tomorrow. The idea is, the requirement is to win a game for both teams," said Maurice. "And they have to close out a series and we have to extend it, so from the time that buzzer ended the game to the start, we're preparing for that."