Jets score five unanswered to beat Ducks

WINNIPEG - It may not have been the 60-minute effort the Winnipeg Jets were looking for, but the five unanswered goals they scored on Sunday afternoon were enough to rally back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2.
But even after the win, Jets head coach Rick Bowness wasn't thrilled.
"I'm the head coach so I'm responsible for the way we start and getting our team prepared. So that starts with me," he said. "The second thing is I'm not a babysitter. These guys are men. They're professionals and they're paid to show up here and go to work. My job here is to make that happen."
Well, whatever speech Bowness gave between the first and second period seemed to work as after falling behind 2-0 just 5:09 into the second, the Jets responded with a vengeance.
Five different goal scorers - Saku Maenalanen, Dylan Samberg, Morgan Barron, Mark Scheifele, and Nate Schmidt - pushed the Jets to victory, and a 15-7-1 record on the season.
"They made it pretty clear, the coaching staff, something needed to change and our effort wasn't good enough," said Barron. "I feel like it kind of slowly started getting a little better in the second. Obviously in the third we were able to tilt the ice a little bit and create some more chances."

Until those chances came, though, Connor Hellebuyck had to be on his game.
The Jets were outshot 18-7 in the first 20 minutes, and only one got by Hellebuyck - who had a shutout in his last outing against Colorado.
Hellebuyck went post-to-post to rob Frank Vatrano, but his momentum carried him a bit further to the right and Jakob Silfverberg was there to pop in his fourth of the season, just as a penalty to Neal Pionk expired.

The visitors made it 2-0 just 5:09 into the second, when Samberg misplayed a puck at the Anaheim blue line, allowing Brett Leason to go in on Hellebuyck alone. He made no mistake, beat Hellebuyck on the stick side for his second goal of the season.
"Hellebuyck was outstanding for us. He did his job," said Bowness of Hellebuyck's 28 saves on 30 shots. "He gave us a chance to get our feet wet and get ourselves back into the game."
Just past the midway mark of the second, the Jets got on the board. Schmidt, playing in his 100th game as a member of the Jets, joined the rush and ended up below the Anaheim goal line. He fed Maenalanen in front, and the Jets forward flipped it over Anthony Stolarz to make it 2-1.
Less than three minutes later, a face-off win by Pierre-Luc Dubois - with support from Kyle Connor - got the puck back to Samberg at the point, and his wrister got through a maze of bodies and floated past Stolarz to tie the game.

Samberg's first NHL goal came in his 32nd career game, and it withstood a review for aa potential high stick, but finally, it was made official, and the Jets were back on even terms.
"Monkey's off my back, so to speak," smiled Samberg, even though he knew it perhaps wasn't the highlight reel goal that some players grow up dreaming about.
All that mattered to him was the fact it went in, and that the shot had enough speed - 56 miles per hour - to beat out a fellow Hermantown, MN teammate.
"I think Pionk had a slower one in Chicago," Samberg laughed. "So I think he has the record on the year."

It was also a nice way for Samberg to rebound after the tough bounce on the Leason goal. Not only did he score to tie it up, he was part of the regroup that led to Maenalanen's goal earlier in the period.
"He was playing fine. Stuff happens out there," Bowness said of the bounce, adding that Samberg's shot is something the coaching staff wants him to use more.
"He's got a heavy wrister," Bowness said. "That blooper wasn't quite his shot. But give him credit. We want him shooting the puck."
In the third, the Jets took their first lead with 5:37 remaining in regulation. Adam Lowry spotted Barron on the back door for Barron's second of the season. It finished off a play that began with speed through the neutral zone in transition.

"We kind of talked about struggling in transition a little bit through the first two periods, so to get one like that with a little bit of speed through the neutral zone and just made two quick plays and all of a sudden it's in the back of the net," said Barron. "Credit to those guys, they made great passes on it."
Less than a minute later - 49 seconds to be exact - Scheifele snapped home his 13th of the season, a perfect wrister into the top right corner past Stolarz.
To cap it off, Schmidt added a power play marker with 45 seconds remaining in regulation.

The Jets are now 2-1-0 on the home stand and finish off the four-game stretch at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday against the Florida Panthers.
And with that being Canadian Armed Forces Night, and former coach Paul Maurice in the building for the first time with the Panthers, emotion to start the game likely won't be a problem.
"All I want to see is action. I want to see passion and emotion in the way we play," said Bowness. "Right or wrong, play with passion, play with emotion and we'll figure the rest out. We're still trying to figure this team out a little bit. We are. We'll figure it out."