Jets use defense to beat Predators
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The tight-checking, defensively sound Winnipeg Jets?
Yes, indeed.
Finally demonstrating they understand how to defend, the Jets earned their fifth victory in six games with a tidy 3-1 decision over the Nashville Predators Tuesday night.
Winnipeg (7-5-1) scored a pair of power-play goals early in the first period and hung on despite a gritty effort by the Predators (7-3-2). It represents a marked improvement from the Jets' 1-4 start to the 2014-15 campaign.
Jets left winger Andrew Ladd, with his fifth goal, and center Mark Scheifele, with his second, scored on Predators goalie Carter Hutton before the game was six minutes old.
Center Filip Forsberg notched his fourth goal of the season in the second period for Nashville.
Winnipeg right winger Blake Wheeler scored his fifth goal of the year into an empty net in the closing moments.
The Jets have endured constant criticism for their inability, or unwillingness, to think defense first since moving to Winnipeg from Atlanta in 2011. Now, under head coach Paul Maurice, the club has tightened things up this season, allowing just 26 goals in 13 contests.
Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who has seen his own numbers sparkle during the team's transformation, said the club is finally buying in to a sound defensive system.
"I think we played really well defensively," said Pavelec, who blocked 23 shots for his sixth win of the year. He's currently in unfamiliar territory among the top 10 goalies in the league, with a 2.01 goals-against average and a save percentage of .924.
"We've been way better the whole season long. We were really comfortable in the third period and we did a lot of things right," he said. "If you look at the stats, you can see the improvement. The quality chances we give up are less, and that's pretty good.
"Five minutes left, even on the penalty kill, nobody panicked. It was great. They didn't even have a shot on the power play. We blocked a lot of shots, just like we did in Chicago (Sunday night)."
The Jets were 3-0-1 on the road, including a pair of shutout victories, before returning home to face the Predators.
Clinging to a one-goal lead, the hosts survived two shorthanded situations in the third period as the solid play of the club's penalty killers, rated fifth best in the NHL, continued.
Ladd, who opened the scoring for Winnipeg at 2:53 of the first period, just 18 seconds after Predators center Matt Cullen was sent to the penalty box for interference, said the club's recent success in close games is fostering confidence in the dressing room.
"We've had some success with it lately, so it breeds a little buy-in to what we're doing," Ladd said. "We've been patient in tight games and comfortable with those one-goal leads, and a win only builds more confidence in that area."
Nashville center Colin Wilson was tagged for hooking less than a minute after Ladd's goal, and the Jets struck again. Scheifele took a pass from right winger Wheeler and ripped a shot to the top left corner.
Left winger Evander Kane, playing just his fifth game after suffering a knee injury on his second shift of the season opener Oct. 9 in Phoenix, picked up an assist for his first point of the year.
Forsberg finally got Nashville on the board with just under four minutes left in the middle period. The talented rookie fired a shot that squeezed between Pavelec's body and arm and fell into the net to cut Winnipeg's lead in half.
The goal halted the Jets' streak of shutout hockey at 161 minutes, 17 seconds -- a franchise record.
"That's great. I think when you're winning hockey games and stuff like (the record) happens, you're a confident group," Ladd said. "You have to give a lot of credit to our goaltenders who've played fantastic this whole year, and they've taken a lot of grief so they deserve a lot of the credit here. They've played well and kept us in games."
Hutton got the starting assignment in place of Predators No.1 goalie Pekka Rinne, who had backstopped Nashville to its seven victories this season. Hutton stopped 24 shots.
Nashville head coach Peter Laviolette said his team never stopped battling.
"I thought we kept pushing and pushing and trying," he said. "You've got to give Winnipeg some credit because they did a good job defensively. It was very difficult to get positioning on the inside in the offensive zone. They were quick to the battles. Our guys were in their end and trying to do what we wanted to do, but it was difficult tonight.
"But the fact that we're down there and hunting and pounding, trying to find that second goal, I give our guys credit for battling. But in the end, we've got to find a way to get it done."
Nashville is nearing the end of a 12-day, six-game road trip, with stops in Dallas and St. Louis later this week.
Winnipeg hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night and then heads out on a five-game road trip. The Jets play 10 of 15 games in November away from MTS Centre.
NOTES: Predators D Anton Volchenkov missed Tuesday's game as he served the second of a four-game suspension for a check to the head of Calgary Flames rookie LW Michael Ferland on Oct. 31. ... The game was the 300th of Jets G Ondrej Pavelec's NHL career. The 27-year-old Czech-born netminder is in his eighth season with the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers organization. ... The Jets registered shutout victories over the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks this past weekend. Pavelec turned aside 38 shots against the Rangers on Saturday, while G Michael Hutchinson blocked 33 shots by the Blackhawks the next night. ... Predators LW James Neal had seven goals but was without an assist, but finally picked up a pair of helpers Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks. ... Tuesday's contest was dubbed Hockey Fights Cancer night in Winnipeg. All Jets players wore lavender-colored jerseys during the pregame warm up, while coaches and broadcasters wore similarly colored ties.
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