Scheifele scores, but Jets open home stand with loss to Chicago

WINNIPEG - The hope was that the Winnipeg Jets would bring the momentum gained from a strong road trip into Canada Life Centre on Monday night to start the home stand on the right foot.
Unfortunately, they came up empty, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks.
"This one didn't have the physical component and we've got to go find that," said Jets interim head coach Dave Lowry. "That's how we're going to have to play. You look at the games that we've played, this one was different."
Mark Scheifele had the lone goal for the Jets (20-18-8), his 14th off the season, which extends his personal goal-scoring streak to four games.

Scheifele, like several Jets, had offensive looks throughout the game. Perhaps none more than Adam Lowry, who had a team-leading six shots on goal, including a shorthanded breakaway and goal mouth scrambles around Marc-Andre Fleury.

The shorthanded chance came in the second period and would've opened the scoring, but as Lowry went to tuck the puck five hole, Fleury dove forward for a poke check. However, the stick came out of the 37-year-old goaltender's hands and knocked the puck into the corner.
"I think I had him beat and his stick comes out and kind of gets in my way but I still had a good chance to score," said Adam Lowry, who had a quick chat with one of the referees (Kevin Pollock) about whether it warranted a penalty shot at a later pause in play.
"It's one of those ones; you can't fault the ref there," Lowry said. "I think any one of us would love to get a penalty shot but it's too tough, too quick unless they're going to be certain you wouldn't want that call going against you."
That miss would prove costly just a few minutes later.

With the Jets holding an edge in the shots on goal column past the midway point of the second, it would be the visitors from Chicago opening the scoring. Patrick Kane's 12th of the season came off the rush, and the nine-time NHL All-Star beat Connor Hellebuyck through the legs from the left wing circle with 9:39 remaining in the middle frame. It was a play that began in the neutral zone with Chicago defenceman Connor Murphy corralling a flipped puck and sending it back the other way.
"I always say that the neutral zone is the most important zone," said Dave Lowry. "If you're good in it, you're playing in the offensive zone and if you're not, you're playing in your own end."
It stayed that way until the third, when the Jets took advantage of a crazy bounce to tie the game. A play to the net by Nate Schmidt went off Murphy's stick and up in the air toward the Chicago goal. Fleury's attempt to snatch it came up empty, and the puck landed behind him, where Scheifele was waiting to smack it home.
Scheifele now has seven points in his last four games and his most recent goal was an example of getting to the net front area, something the Jets felt they didn't do enough of on Monday.
"We made it pretty easy on him for large stretches, especially in the second period," said Adam Lowry. "We'd have the zone time, we'd get the shots and he had a clear lane to see it. There wasn't really any secondary action whereas in the third period and some stretches of the third, you have a guy even with a threat of tipping a puck or creating a rebound puts a little more pressure on him to make the same and put the rebounds in a good spot."
The tie didn't last long though, as Alex DeBrincat put the visitors ahead just 3:25 later. He gained the Jets zone with speed and fired a wrist shot from the top of the circles that beat Hellebuyck to restore Chicago's lead at 2-1.

With the Jets pushing for the same type of late-game magic they found in Dallas at six-on-five, Brandon Hagel deposited an empty netter with 56 seconds remaining to close the book on the Jets comeback.
It was a deflating end to a night that began with so much promise after the successful road trip.
"The two points versus Nashville are worth the same as they are tonight," said Nate Schmidt. "You've got to find that type of energy on your bench and in your room when it's a game that doesn't have as much emotion to it as the previous ones we've played."
Emotion likely won't be a problem in the next game of the homestand, as the Minnesota Wild come to town for a rematch of the heated tilt the two clubs had just last week.
Only this time, the building will be full instead of at half capacity.