THREE THINGS: Red Wings score four in third, beat Jets 5-1

WINNIPEG – The Detroit Red Wings scored four goals in the third period to beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 at Canada Life Centre. Cole Koepke scored the only goal for the Jets who are now 20-24-7. Connor Hellebuyck played in his 600^th NHL game and made 26 saves. The Jets will now head out on the road for a four-game trip starting Tuesday against the Devils.

GREASY GOAL

The Jets hadn’t scored at 5-on-5 through their last three games; forward Morgan Barron was asked what wasn’t working in that department before tonight’s game.

“I think when pucks aren't finding their way to the net, I think it's about just going to those hard areas and finding a way to guess the greasy goals or the ones around the net.” said Barron.

With the game tied at 0-0 in the second period, Barron’s line did exactly that with Cole Koepke scoring a greasy goal to give Winnipeg their first 5v5 goal since January 17.

“Offensive draw, and Barron did a good job of winning to clean back, and we were just getting bodies to the net,” said Koepke.

“And Stanley did a good job delivering it, and it went off me, kind of landed there, perfect for me.”

LET IT GET OUT OF HAND

The Jets had played a solid defensive effort through 40 minutes, and the game was tied at one going into the third period. Winnipeg had numerous great chances to score in the second but just could not get that second goal past John Gibson. The Jets just got away from doing things that had made them successful earlier in the night in the third and that opened the door for a four-goal outburst by the Red Wings. However, head coach Scott Arniel was not happy with pretty much anything that he saw.

“We were looking for a pond hockey game. Don’t get hit, don’t hit anybody. Just play an easy soft game,” said Arniel.

“That’s pretty much what we did for two periods, and it exploded in the third period.”

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

The Jets are heading out on a challenging four-game road trip and will play in some tough buildings in New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Florida and Dallas. They had a stretch of nine games out of 11 on home ice and went 4-2-3 missing out on some critical points to pull themselves back into the playoff picture in the Western Conference.

“We got to get points and try to get wins. Obviously, time is of the essence,” said Dylan DeMelo.

“We don’t have any leeway at all, we gotta win some games, string them together. But even if we get the next one, we have to focus on the next one and go from there. We’re not going to get into the playoffs just by winning one game.”