THREE THINGS: Jets lose fourth straight, Milic makes NHL debut

Seth Jarvis scored his second career hat trick to lead the Carolina Hurricanes over the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 at Lenovo Center. The Jets losing streak has reached four games and they are now 12-11 on the season. The Jets longest losing streak last season was four games, from Nov. 27 – Dec. 3. Mark Scheifele scored the only goal of the night for Winnipeg who has only scored seven times during the last four contests. Winnipeg will play the second game of a back-to-back Saturday night in Nashville.

MILIC TIME

After 99 regular season appearances in the minors (63 with AHL Manitoba, 36 with ECHL Norfolk), Thomas Milic made his NHL debut tonight in Raleigh. He is the second Jets prospect to play his first game in the National Hockey League in as many games as Elias Salomonsson did it Wednesday in Washington. Milic ended up making 30 saves and held Carolina to one goal until the 11:52 mark of the third and that opened the door for three more goals in a four goal period for the Hurricanes.

"There was some structure stuff that we got away from. The kid made some big stops, kept us in that one, obviously allowed us a chance. (We were) better in the second, a lot better in the second. We came out in the third doing the right things but those two quick ones... Was it the eight minute mark?," said head coach Scott Arniel.

"Back-to-back plays. And they were coverage plays. Both of those plays came right down, one went off one of our defenceman, the other one... Those are coming right down Grand Central. That's on us. That's on... I feel for the kid because he's giving us a chance."

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY

The Hurricanes are well known for not giving up many shots, so you have to cash in when opportunity presents itself. With Carolina leading 1-0 in the second period, Gabe Vilardi spotted Mark Scheifele behind the Canes defence and Scheifele skated in and scored on the breakaway for his 13^th of the season. Per NHL Stats, Scheifele boosted his totals to 13-17—30 (23 GP) – the second-fewest games he’s needed to reach the 30-point mark in a season (22 GP in 2020-21). The last Jets/Thrashers player other than Scheifele to hit 30 points in 23 or fewer games was Ilya Kovalchuk (21 GP in 2007-08).

The Jets secondary scoring was not there again tonight as the last forward to score for Winnipeg outside of the top line was Adam Lowry in the first period of the Jets 5-2 win over Columbus on November 18. Winnipeg did have some great chances, Elias Salomonsson rang one off the crossbar, Kyle Connor had a breakaway, and Cole Perfetti had three quality scoring opportunities.

COUPLE MANITOBA KIDS KEY TO CANES WIN

The last time these two met a week ago, Winnipeg product Seth Jarvis scored a shorthanded goal in the 4-3 Canes win. Tonight, Jarvis opened the scoring at 16:06 of the first period. Brandon’s Jordan Martinook restored the Carolina lead at 11:52 of the third and Jarvis followed that up with his second and third goals of the evening to give him 15 on the season.