GAMEDAY: Jets at Maple Leafs

TORONTO -Paul Maurice will make only one change to his line-up as the Winnipeg Jets (16-8-2) prepare for the rubber match with the Toronto Maple Leafs (19-7-2).
That change comes between the pipes, as Laurent Brossoit will get his sixth start of the season. He takes over for Connor Hellebuyck, who was sensational in the first two meetings between the Jets and Maple Leafs this week.
"You have close two 80 shots back-to-back nights and you're that good, you can have a hotdog on a Saturday," Maurice said with a grin, before saying he had planned to go with Brossoit at some point on this five-game road trip.
"I actually had him scheduled for Game 2 of the Toronto series, but based on the way the first one went, we came off the 7-1, Connor was so good in Game 1, I needed to go back with him."

Brossoit is 4-1-0 this season with a 0.923 save percentage. In his last start, he made 31 saves on 33 shots in a 5-2 Jets win over the Vancouver Canucks on Mar. 2.
In front of Brossoit, the Jets' forward lines and defensive combinations will remain the same. However, Maurice hinted that he may change how he deploys those lines.
"I'm mindful of the matchup tonight. I will see if one line is getting a real tough advantage and then I'm on the road, I probably experiment a little bit more on the road with learning about our lines," said Maurice. "I'm still trying to learn what the threshold is for each line. Lowry's line has always been very good against certain kinds of offensive units and then there are some checking lines I like Lowry's line on."
Winnipeg Jets : Ground Control
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Fly By - Mar. 13, 2021 - WPG @ TOR
Winnipeg's projected line-up looks like this:
Stastny-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Ehlers
Copp-Lowry-Appleton
Perreault-Thompson-Lewis
Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
Tonight marks the third time this season that the Jets have faced the same opponent for three consecutive games.
In each of the previous two series (against the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames), the Jets found a way to win that third game.
"In these third games, they are unique. It's so hard to win the series and get on a roll and it's so important that you find ways to be able to do that," said Adam Lowry. "That's our focus tonight, is being able to kind of close out the series and take two out of three against a very good Leafs team and it'd be a pretty successful road trip overall."
This will be the first time that those three consecutive match-ups happen solely on the road. For Josh Morrissey, who leads the Jets in average ice time per game at 24 minutes, there are huge advantages to that.
"It's easier to bring the different recovery devices that I use to try and get my body ready to go," said Morrissey. "It's about managing your time away from the rink and your days off. As soon as the one game ends, the clock starts on preparing for a game a couple nights later."
Rest between each game has been important, because the majority of Morrissey's time on the ice this week has been against Toronto's Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
In Thursday's overtime loss, Morrissey played against Matthews for 11:57 of five-on-five time, and 10:40 against Marner.
Marner and Matthews are fourth and fifth in the NHL in points with 37 and 35 respectively. Their ability to find an open teammate in a maze of bodies makes them difficult players to contain, according to Morrissey.
"Then they have the skill to take the puck out of the corner, maybe tight turn against you, have a little shoulder check or a little peek or something, and see that player is open," Morrissey said. "Then it's on the tape, through a triangle or something like that, then the player that's shooting the puck has a lot of skill to get it off in a hurry or make the next play."
As a group, the Jets have been working since training camp to reduce the number of high-danger chances they give up. Toronto's skill has been able to exploit some openings in that high-danger area in front of the Jets' net the last two games.
"I think at the end of the day they're really strong at getting pucks … making little plays around the net, little passes into the slot and they're willing to go there," Morrissey said.
"You have to respect the skill that players on their team have, that's for sure. You can't sort of just be sitting around the D zone watching. You have to still be aggressive and try to defend the way that our team does."
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT.
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets conclude a five-game road trip on Saturday with the third of three consecutive games against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Jets have points in eight of their past 10 games (7-2-1) which included a season high four-game winning streak from Feb. 19-27.
The Jets are in a stretch of playing 12 of 14 games on the road.
Defenceman Neal Pionk (6A) has an assist in four consecutive games, including matching a career-high with three assists on Tuesday.
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