"Our situation here, we lose a guy like (Morrissey) who plays such important minutes for us, and we still pitch a shutout," said Chiarot, who played 18:54 in Game 5. "I'm definitely impressed with the amount of depth we have, especially on the back end. I think that's what you see with a lot of successful teams. All year, we've had guys fill in and do a great job. The guys who come up from (Manitoba of the American Hockey League) do a great job."
He pointed to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, as the prime example of value in depth.
"You hear it every year in the playoffs, that especially to be successful in the playoffs you have to have eight or nine NHL defensemen on your team to be successful," Chiarot said. "(Pittsburgh) had a ton of NHL defensemen that have played a long time and guys sitting out that have played a long time. So it's just one of the ingredients of a successful team, having a lot of guys that can play."
They Jets erased the possibility of a letdown with a four-goal siege that had them ahead 4-0 by 11:59 of the first period.
"We had a lot of motivation coming into tonight," Myers said. "We had a chance to win the franchise's first playoff series (the Atlanta Thrashers/Jets franchise had previously been to the playoffs twice and never won a game), and that was a lot of motivation for us and we came out exactly the way we needed to."