Scott Taylor's Blog, page 82

Jets and Flames Rest Top Players, Jets Coast to a 5-1 Win

Winnipeg Jets fans celebrated early on Saturday afternoon. Then, after two quiet periods, they celebrated again.

The jam-packed crowd at MTS Centre gave their playoff-bound Jets a long, loud standing ovation to start the game. Then they watched two teams score in the opening minute of play Then they settled in for a long afternoon of missed passes and neutral-zone turnovers.

In the end, the Jets were simply too good – inasmuch as they had fewer American Hockey League players in their lineup as Calgary – as the home side whipped the Flames 5-1. Winnipeg scored four unanswered goals in the third period to put it away.

Paul Maurice, coaching the hell out of this team. (Photo by James Carey Lauder)

“For both teams that was a difficult game to play,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “Not a lot of physicality in the game, a lot of over-handling the puck. It was a good game for a lot of guys who hadn’t been in a game for a long time. You want to clinch (a playoff spot) earlier, but you don’t want to play too many games like that.”

With the win, the Jets added to a list of milestones reached this season. The Jets set the franchise record for points in a season with 99 (previous: 97 in 2006-07). They also tied the franchise record for most wins in a season with 43 (previous: 43 in 2006-07). And the Jets also set the franchise record for fewest goals allowed with only 210. (previous: 237 in 2013-14).

The first two goals, both scored within a minute of the opening faceoff were classic AHL goals – as in, accidental.

The Flames scored at the 33-second mark as Swan River rookie Michael Ferland found a loose puck in front of Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson and guided it home. It was Ferland’s second NHL goal in a rink in which he’d played a number of times with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Jets scored 10 seconds later as Flames goalie Joni Ortio (no, not Joni Mitchell, Joni Ortio) mishandled a shot by Drew Stafford and had the puck bounce over his head, off his back and into the net.

Michael Hutchinson won the final game of the season as Ondrej Pavelec had the night off (Photo by Jeff Miller)

After that it was mostly bouncing pucks, dumps without the chase and limited scoring chances until Mark Scheifele and Michael Frolik combined to score a real NHL goal. Before the first minute in the third period had ticked by, Scheifele laid a perfect pass onto Frolik’s stick and he ripped a high, hard one into a gaping hole in the Flames net for his 19th of the year. That was probably enough but the Jets weren’t done.

A few minutes later Lee Stempniak scored his 15th to put it away and a few seconds after that, Adam Lowry scored his 11th unassisted. Matt Halischuk wrapped up the scoring with his third of the year at 18:59 of the third and, by then, the Jets were officially getting ready for the post-season.

“It’s Christmas for coaches (being back in the playoffs),” said Maurice. “It’s going to be a challenge for the coaches. “When you get into the playoffs, you just enjoy the energy. The guys are going to be wired, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Sunday’s game was one of those meaningless end-of-season games with both teams headed to the playoffs after long, grinding campaigns. Essentially, the 15,004 fans at MTS Centre saw an American Hockey League game at NHL prices.

Swan River’s Michael Ferland (79) played in front of family and friends and scored his second NHL goal (Photo by Jeff Miller)

The Flames did not dress Kris Russell, Dennis Wideman, T.J Brodie, Johnny Gaudreau, Lance Bouma, David Jones, Sean Monahan, Jiri Hudler, Paul Byron, Raphael Diaz or Karri Ramo. Not all were injured, obviously.

The Jets sat out Paul Postma. Mark Stuart, Jacob Trouba, Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler, Tyler Myers, Eric O’Dell, Mathieu Perreault or Ondrej Pavelec. Again, not all of them were injured.

It was thought that some of the players wearing Flames uniforms had been in witness protection (as recently as yesterday): Emile Poirier, Brett Kulak, John Ramage, Tyler Wotherspoon (isn’t he a speed skater?), Sam Bennett and Corey Potter have not played enough games with the Flames (combined) to account for an entire NHL season.

It did give Winnipeg fans a chance to see young Andrew Copp and it gave Matt Halischuk, Keaton Ellerby, TJ Galiardi and Anthony Peluso a chance to get back into an NHL game. Copp brought the crowd to its feet when he picked up his first NHL point, an assist, on Stempniak’s goal in the third.

The Flames outshot the Jets 25-22, but Michael Hutchinson earned the win and improved to 21-10-5 in this, his rookie campaign. The Jets were zero-for-two on the power play while the Flames were zero-for-four.

So now the Jets head to the post-season for the first time since the team moved to Winnipeg from Atlanta in 2011. For Maurice, this is the best part of the job.

Matt Halischuk scored his third goal of the season (Photo by Jeff Miller)

“I enjoy coming to the rink,” said Maurice. “I enjoy the games – maybe not this game – but it’s just really enjoyable being around these guys. It’s exciting.

“Right now, the first thing we’re going to do is assess the schedule. We’ll take (Sunday) off, because they won’t have too many chances to take days off between now and whenever the playoffs end. We’ll look at video and assess how we’re going approach the opposition (whether it’s St. Louis or Anaheim).

“But before it starts, to get 99 points in a really tough Western Conference, I’m just really proud of the effort.”

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Winnipeg Set for First Trip to the Playoffs

Scouts all over the National Hockey League say one thing about the Winnipeg Jets: “Nobody wants to play against these guys.”

With a hard-working system that combines a hard-nosed, aggressive forecheck with a patient chip-it-in, chip-it-out approach to the game, the Jets are a team that might not get a lot of chances, but they certainly don’t give up very many. It also doesn’t hurt that goaltender Ondrej Pavalec is white hot. This is the one team that can beat any other team in the NHL and have proved it, on more than one occasion, this past season.

Winnipeg loves the Jets (Photo by James Carey Lauder)

With one game remaining, Saturday afternoon against the Calgary Flames, the Jets are locked into the second wild card spot in the West and while all eight Western Conference teams have been set for the playoffs, the pairings have not.

The Jets will play the higher finisher of the two division champions after the 2014-15 season comes to an end on Saturday. Amazingly, all 30 teams play on Saturday. Based on what we already know, it’s likely the Jets will face Anaheim in the opening round.

On Thursday, the St. Louis Blues clinched first place in the Central Division with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, and with Minnesota’s 4-2 win over Nashville. The Blues and the Pacific Division champion Ducks each have 107 points; the Ducks have the tiebreaker edge with 41 regulation/overtime wins to 40 for the Blues.

Nashville will finish second in the Central. The third-place Blackhawks are two points ahead of the Wild. The Vancouver Canucks, currently second in the Pacific Division, will play Calgary in the first round. The Canucks lead the Flames by two points and can assure themselves of the home-ice advantage in their series by earning one point in their season finale against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Jets won three of four and got seven of eight points without Big Buff (Photo by Jeff Miller)

Calgary, of course, finishes the season at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, Saturday at 2 p.m. The Stanley Cup Playoffs being April 15.

Between now and next Wednesday, Jets head coach Paul Maurice will have to come to terms with a couple of scenarios:

After his defense played brilliantly down the stretch for four games without Toby Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien , does he disrupt something that is going well, just to get some star players back into the lineup. He could always make Byfuglien a forward again.


Byfuglien at forward might be his best alternative if Mathieu Perreault, who was injured on Thursday night, can’t answer the bell come next week.

“There have been two or three times over the course of the year, especially lately, when we’ve faced some pretty significant adversity,” said head coach Paul Maurice, as he reflected on his team’s playoff run during his televised post-game news conference on Thursday.

“We had Byfuglien and Little go down for such a long time and that hurt us and Buff’s suspension, but we lost those two games last week and it was just so painful… the thought that that group could work as hard as it did and overcome as much as it did and the idea that you wouldn’t get the payoff for it just seemed wrong.

“It’s been a pleasure for me to work behind the bench. It’s been a really enjoyable year to go to the rink every day because they were going to work as hard as they could. I’m happy for them, they earned it. They worked so hard and did all the right things. They hung in there when it was dark and ugly and huddled through injuries and played in the toughest division in hockey… they earned it I’m happy for them.

Is this the NHL’s coach of the year? (Photo by James Carey Lauder)

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Flames Help Jets Reach the Playoffs, Pavelec Brilliant

The Winnipeg Jets might have been shootout losers in Denver on Thursday night, but for the first time since arriving in Winnipeg in 2011, the Jets are headed to the post-season.

And they should send the Calgary Flames a thank you card.

Ondrej Pavalec was brilliant again: three straight shutouts.

The Jets lost 1-0 in a shootout to the Colorado Avalanche as Avs goalie Reto Berra not only stopped 40 shots, but improved to 6-0 in shootouts this season. Because the Jets didn’t win, they needed help from the Calgary Flames.

And they got it.

At the Saddledome, Jiri Hudler had two goals and an assist as he led the Flames to a 3-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, eliminating L.A. from the post-season and guaranteeing the Jets a shot at the 2015 Stanley Cup.

The Jets have one game remaining in the regular season – Saturday at MTS Centre against the Flames. Kind of fitting.

In Denver on Thursday, Avs goalie Reto Berra was the story. The 28-year-old journeyman Swiss netminder foiled the Jets at every turn as Winnipeg outshot the Avalanche 40-21, but nothing got past Berra.

Blake Wheeler will have nightmares. He had Berra beaten in the dying seconds of regulation time, but Berra manager to keep a rebound out of the net. Then Wheeler had Berra beaten again in the dying seconds of overtime, but somehow the Colorado goaltender got a leg across to deflect away a perfect wrap-around opportunity.

Berra stops Wheeler in the shootout.

Then in the shootout, Berra stopped both Wheeler and Andrew Ladd while Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene beat Ondrej Pavelec and that’s how it ended.

But don’t knock Pavelec. He was magnificent and currently has three straight road shutouts to his credit. He beat Minnesota 2-0 in St. Paul on Monday, then beat the Blues 1-0 in St. Louis on Tuesday and then played 65 minutes without allowing a goal to the Avalanche in Denver. It was a virtuoso performance at the exact time of the season when his team needed it most.

Meanwhile, there was some bad news on Thursday night. Jets leftwinger Mathieu Perreault injured his leg after being checked to the ice by Zach Redmond at 5:42 of the second period. He tried to come back, but couldn’t and left the bench for the remainder of the game.

With Toby Enstrom injured and Dustin Byfuglien suspended for four games, the Jets went 3-0-1 and grabbed seven of a possible eight points. With help from the Flames, the Jets were able to make an announcement the club has been dying to make for four years:

“The Winnipeg Jets announced today that individual game tickets for Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Western Conference quarterfinal will go on sale on Tuesday, April 14 at 10:00 a.m. Tickets for game 6, if necessary, will be made available once that game is confirmed. Individual game tickets for the Western Conference Quarterfinal are priced between $107.75 and $340.00 per game. Fans can purchase tickets online at www.winnipegjets.com/tickets .”

The bad news: Mathieu Perreault is down.

Despite the loss, the Jets are 42-26-13 and now have an X beside their name in the NHL standings. With a point on Thursday, the Jets tied a franchise record with 97 points (2006-07). They are still one win behind the franchise record of 47 victories. Meanwhile, the Jets have allowed only 208 goals against this season. The previous franchise low was 237, a mark they set last season.

So there is one final game before the playoffs. Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at MTS Centre. It’s on TSN3.

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Five Manitobans in This Weekend’s Frozen Four

University of North Dakota men’s hockey captain Stephane Pattyn is all about consistency. The man they call “The General,” believes that by staying consistent, a team with as much pressure on it to win as any in the NCAA, has given itself a chance to become national champions.

“I think getting here is something our whole team expected and put on ourselves,” Pattyn told ESPN on Wednesday morning. “There’s a lot of pressure playing at UND from our fans and our alums. But it’s a good pressure. It drove us through the season and it kept us accountable. Our whole team was on board and everyone was committed to this one goal. We stayed consistent, we won when we needed to win and now we’re here.”

Stephane Pattyn, captain UND men’s hockey. (Photo by James Carey Lauder)

UND, the No. 1 team in the nation will lead Boston University, the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Providence College into the 2015 Frozen Four this weekend at the TD Bank Garden in Boston.

And make no mistake, the tournament will have a Manitoba stamp on it. In fact, there will be five Manitobans competing in this year’s Frozen Four, the NCAA’s national hockey championship tournament.

The University of North Dakota, featuring Manitobans Stephane Pattyn (Ste. Anne), Bryn Chyzyk (Virden) and Brendan O’Donnell (Winnipeg) along with the Providence Friars and their top player, Shane Luke from Dauphin and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks with Lorette’s Joel Messner will all be in Boston this weekend.

Providence will meet UN-O in the first semifinal game on Thursday night beginning at 4 p.m. CST while North Dakota will face Boston University at 7:30 p.m. Both games will be televised on TSN in Canada.

Winnipeg’s Brendan O’Donnell, UND

According to the experts, UND is favored over the Boston University Terriers even though Boston has home ice advantage.

“It’s going to be a great match-up,” said the NCAA college hockey experts at USCHO.com. “It will come down to Boston’s high-end talent and whether it can beat North Dakota’s high-tempo play.

“Junior Drake Caggiula may be the closest skater that North Dakota has to a bona fide star. He leads the team in goals (18) and points (36) in 41 games played. However, his team-high 22 points in NCHC play placed him in a tie for 13th in conference scoring. North Dakota has 10 forwards with at least 13 points, making it extremely deep.

“They are very balanced,” the analysts continued. “They can roll four lines and that really is a weapon for them. And playing goal for them is Zane McIntyre, one of the 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award and one of five finalists for the Mike Richter Award. In 41 games this season, McIntyre has posted a 29-9-3 record with a 2.00 GAA and a .931 save percentage. He appears to be just as comfortable making 19 saves as he did in the regional final against St. Cloud State as he is making a season-high 43, which he did on March 6 against Miami.”

The player to watch for Boston University is Jack Eichel who will likely be the No. 2 selection in this June’s NHL draft.

“For North Dakota to beat the Terriers, it will have to stick to keeping the game from becoming a track meet,” said USCHO.com. “ The simpler, the better. For the Terriers, it will take solving McIntyre early. North Dakota lost both games it played in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff (the conference toyrnament) in part because it was playing from behind after the first 20 minutes.”

In the first game of the evening, the UN-O Mavericks will make their first trip to the Frozen Four while the Providence Friars will make their first trip in 30 years.

Lorette’s Joel Messner UN-O

The Mavericks are a bit of a surprise team in this year’s field. With a 20-12-6 record, they finished third in the NCHC with 43 points. However, after Rochester Institute of Technology beat the “other” Mavericks, the ones from Minnesota State, UN-O beat the RIT Tigers to win the Midwest Regional.

“We’re looking forward to this game because these teams are so different,” said USCHO.com. “Both teams play really well, but they have very different styles. It will come down to which team can assert its game on the other. If it becomes a transition game, Omaha will win. If it becomes a structured game in the zone, Providence will win.”

While no team is a prohibitive favorite, one thing is certain: A Manitoba player will play in Saturday’s final. Last year, Mat Bodie from East St. Paul was the captain of the NCAA Champion Union College Dutchmen. His coach praised Bodie’s Manitoba heritage.

“I think Mat has that pride factor, he’s got that Winnipeg, Manitoba pride going,” Union head coach Rick Bennett told reporters after Union beat Boston College 5-4 in the NCAA semifinal. “I just love the pride he has. Just the way he carries himself. Ever since his first year, just working with him… you could really sense that pride in himself and the game right from the first practice on.”

You can bet that pride will continue with a new Manitoba hero this weekend.

Dauphin’s Shane Luke, Providence.

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Jets Beat Blues 1-0: Now One Step Closer to the Playoffs

With another huge shutout win, the Winnipeg Jets took one more step toward the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs.

A second-period goal by Chris Thorburn, his seventh of the year, and another monster game by goaltender Ondrej Pavelec combined to give Winnipeg a thrilling 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues and after 80 games, the Jets are sitting in the cat bird’s seat when it comes to making the playoffs.

Ondrej Pavelec was the story.

Once again, the Jets played without defensemen Toby Enstrom (injured) and Dustin Byfuglien (suspension), but Enstrom is expected to skate today and Byfuglien will be back on Saturday for the Jets final game of the year against Calgary.

Even though Calgary and Los Angeles were playing late games on Tuesday night, the Jets victory puts the local side in a wonderful position. The Jets have 96 points after recording their third straight victory and with a record of 42-26-5, control their own destiny with two games left in the season: In Colorado on Thursday and at home with Calgary on Saturday. The Minnesota Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Tuesday night and clinched a playoff spot with 98 points.

For the first time in Pavelec’s career, he has recorded back-to-back shutouts – 2-0 in Minnesota on Monday and 1-0 in St. Louis on Tuesday — as he held the fort and gave the Jets a legitimate chance to reach the post-season for the first time since the franchise arrived in Winnipeg in 2011. It was also the first time the Jets have won in St. Louis since the team relocated from Atlanta.

The Jets outshot St. Louis 31-30, but it could be argued that the Blues had the better scoring chances. Regardless, Pavelec was a rock. David Backes and Jaden Schwartz each had two wonderful scoring opportunities while T.J. Oshie had a wide open cage in the second period, but Pavelec’s right leg shot across to deflect Oshie’s shot into the corner.

Adam Pardy battles with Ryan Reaves.

To be fair, the Blues thought they’d tied the game with 5:01 left in the second period when Steve Ott fed Paul Stastny, who scored on a backhand. However, the officials waved off the goal, calling Stastny for slashing the stick of Jets defenseman Tyler Myers. Jets fans love to sing the blues about the NHL’s officials, but the referees had Winnipeg’s back last night. The Jets were zero-for-four on the power play as Jake Allen was solid in the St. Louis net, while St. Louis was zero-for-two with the man advantage.

This game was a rough-and-tumble affair and, at times, it was downright mean. Ben Chiarot had five hits, Adam Lowry had four and Thorburn and Mark Stuart had three each. Backes had six hits for St. Louis while Patrik Berglund and Barret Jackman had four each. The Jets Mathieu Perreault tried to hit the Blues’ big Ryan Reaves, but Reaves saw it coming and nearly took Perreault’s head off.

Still, through it all, the Jets didn’t back down and tied a franchise record with their 20th road win of the season. With 46 wins, they are only one behind the franchise record set in 2006-07.

T.J. Oshie and Mark Stuart mix it up in front of Pavelec. This game was mean.

If this Jets team makes the playoffs, it’s hard to imagine anyone is going to want to play against them. They don’t give up a lot of goals and they play a tough forecheck and bring all hands back to clog up the scoring lanes on defense.

Winnipeg could all but guarantee themselves a playoff berth with a win on Thursday night in Denver. It’s the Jets and the Colorado Avalanche at 8 p.m. on TSN3.

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Jets Play Perfect Road Game, Stay in Playoff Hunt

ST. PAUL – On an evening that can only be described as electric, the Winnipeg Jets turned a perfectly executed road game into one of the biggest wins of the season. And it was a shutout, no less.

Ondrej Pavelec was terrific.

With 19,010 in attendance – many of them Jets fans — at Xcel Energy Centre in downtown St. Paul, the Jets got goals from two Minnesota guys, Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford (who was born in Milwaukee, but grew up in Faribault, Minn.) — along with 32 saves from Ondrej Pavelec as they beat the Minnesota Wild 2-0.

The Jets did exactly what they had to do in one of the toughest situations of the season: They came out with plenty of jump and dominated the first period, got a big goal in the second and then held the fort in the third to win the first game of a three-game road trip through Minnesota, St. Louis and Colorado.

The Jets have three games remaining this season and with Monday night’s win, they slipped into seventh place in the West, a point ahead of eighth-place Calgary and two ahead of ninth-place Los Angeles. The Kings had a late game on the coast in Vancouver.

The difference for the Jets was the play of Pavelec. The Czech goaltender who was actually sick with the flu during the weekend, not only stopped every shot he faced, he also took a beating from a Wild team that charged the net hard on every rush.

“That kind of physical play around the net is just the way it is these days in the NHL,” Pavelec said. “I don’t like it, but I like that we won. That was a huge win for us. I can’t say how important it was. Now we have three games left and we just have to keep winning. That was such a big win.”

Before the game, you could feel the tension. The Wild needed to win to clinch a playoff spot while the Jets needed a win to keep pace with Calgary and Los Angeles in the battle for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference.

Drew Stafford scores the Jets second goal.

Playing without two of their best defensemen, Toby Enstrom (injury) and Dustin Byfuglien (suspension), the Jets played better than anyone expected and probably won the biggest game of the season.

The Jets came out flying and essentially owned the first period. They outshot the Wild 16-9, but more importantly, they outchanced Minnesota 7-3. The Jets played desperate hockey from the opening faceoff, worked harder in the dirty parts of the rink and outskated the Wild. The forecheck was outstanding and they never really let the Wild get comfortable in their own building. The Jets created more chances off turnovers and while they might not have had territorial advantage throughout the period, they had a number of tremendous rushes that resulted in great scoring chances.

Granted, the Jets led only 1-0 after 20 minutes and the Wild had four good shots in the final minute and a half with the man-advantage, but Blake Wheeler’s power play goal had the Jets in front and with four games remaining in the season, having the lead is and was paramount.

“We got off to a great start,” Pavelec said. “Scoring that first goal was huge for us. The whole game long I was able to see the puck. It was a good team effort and a great way to start the road trip. It was a big win in a tough building. It’s a tough building to play in but at the same time, it’s fun to play here. Lately we’ve been good in how we start the games. We were able to do that tonight and keep that big crowd out of it.”

Early in the second period, Tomas Vanek beat Pavelec cleanly but drilled his shot off the post. From that point forward, it was Game On!

Wheeler scored the game’s first goal on the power play at 4:12 of the first period as he attempted to make a pass in front, but the puck deflected off the skate of Wild defenseman Marco Scandella and then found the back of the net behind Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk.

The Wild’s Devan Dubnyk watches for the Jets’ Adam Lowry.

In the second period, with Minnesota dominating play, the Jets picked up a loose puck in their own zone, started a rush and Drew Stafford benefited from a big rebound off a Tyler Myers shot. Stafford’s goal made it 2-0 and the Jets hung on to improve to 41-26-12 on the season.

The Wild did have the better of the play in the third period, but Pavelec was terrific. Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 34-32 on the evening and outhit the Wild 23-22.

But there is no rest for a team in a playoff hunt. The Jets will get right back at it Tuesday night in St. Louis. Game time with the Blues is 7 p.m. and it’s on TSN3.

Posted by: Scott Taylor for RiverCitySports.com

Jets Play Desperate Hockey and Edge Canucks

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Santana Nabbed With ‘Ben Johnson’ ‘Roids in His System

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Byfuglien Handed Four-Game Suspension

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It’s Easy, Big Buff Just Lost His Mind

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