If the Winnipeg Jets were hoping to put an end to their eight-game winless streak, the schedule makers certainly weren't making things easy. Winnipeg travelled to Raleigh on Sunday afternoon to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, a team that has been among the league's best to start the season.
Adding to the challenge was the man between the pipes for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov entered the afternoon having won each of his first nine starts of the season, giving the Jets another difficult obstacle to overcome as they looked to finally get back in the win column.
Carolina scored four times in a 7:14 span in the second period and Kochetkov made 26 saves for the shuout in a 7-0 win over the Jets extending Winnipeg's winless streak to nine games and had their record fall to 4-8-3.
“That’s pretty frustrating. Pretty embarrassing, as an organization, that one. The first period, even though, we were talking about it, it’s four games in six nights, against the Stanley Cup champions, you knew you had to be ready," said head coach Scott Arniel.
"It wasn’t a bad period in the first. We made a mistake on the shorthanded goal against, but just that second period, where we create the mistakes that we did that end up in the back of our net."
The Jets' special teams struggles continued early in the first period, as Winnipeg surrendered a goal while on the power play. Seth Jarvis sent Sean Walker in alone on Stuart Skinner, and Walker made no mistake, opening the scoring at 5:16. It was the first shorthanded goal the Jets have allowed this season.
Carolina's first power play turned into a two-man advantage when Mark Jankowski took a high stick to the face while battling Elias Salomonsson in front of the Jets' net, giving the Hurricanes 24 seconds of 5-on-3 time. Winnipeg managed to kill off both penalties, but the penalty kill came at a cost, as Mario Ferraro was injured blocking a shot and had to leave the game, the good news was he came back at the start of the second.
The Jets had a couple of good scoring opportunities on the power play to start the second period but couldn't find a way to capitalize. Instead, it was Carolina that found the back of the net. Juuso Valimaki fired a shot from the point, with Stuart Skinner screened by Haydn Fleury, and the puck managed to sneak through the Jets goaltender at 1:55.
Winnipeg was looking to regroup, but things got tougher just over a minute later. Alex Iafallo was called for hooking, and the Hurricanes needed just eight seconds to make the Jets pay. Andrei Svechnikov sent a nice cross-crease pass to Sebastian Aho, who muscled home his team-leading ninth of the season to give Carolina a 3-0 lead. It was a tough sequence for the Jets, who had generated chances moments earlier but found themselves facing a three-goal deficit after another quick special teams strike by the Hurricanes.
Things continued to unravel for the Jets as Carolina extended its lead to 4-0. After Winnipeg struggled to get the puck out of its zone following an extended shift of Hurricanes pressure, Sean Walker fired a shot that deflected off Dylan Samberg and past Stuart Skinner for his second goal of the afternoon at 7:41.
Skinner's afternoon would come to an end at 9:09 when Logan Stankoven collected a loose puck in the slot and wristed it past the Jets netminder to give Carolina a 5-0 lead. Head coach Scott Arniel made the decision to turn to Clay Stevenson, bringing an end to Skinner's afternoon as the Jets looked for a spark and an opportunity to regroup.
“It's a collective of a whole bunch of things. Our PK is really struggling right now. We make it 2-0 and then we take a penalty right away. And then before you know it, it's 3-0," said Adam Lowry.
"There's been different things in the streak. But tonight it's a tight game after the first. And then it's the consistency we've talked about. It's playing all three periods. It’s just not there."
After a good start to the third period for Winnipeg, the Hurricanes got another power play goal, this one off the stick of Jankowski to make it 6-0.
Not long after that, Jesperi Kotkaniemi closed out the scoring at 8:38.
“It's tough, for sure. Yeah, just tough, tough across the board. I mean, you gotta dig in at the end of the day," said Dylan DeMelo.
"Obviously not where we want to be and tonight was really, just a tough effort. No one's gonna feel sorry for us and it's not like we have time or anything to… we got to reset right away here and get ready for Tuesday in Montreal.”
The Jets will head to Montreal tonight and will wrap up this road trip Tuesday against the Canadiens.
