The Winnipeg Jets dropped their second game in a row with a 5-2 loss in Salt Lake City to the Utah Hockey Club. Nino Niederreiter and Dylan DeMelo scored for Winnipeg and Nikolaj Ehlers recorded two assists as the Jets record fell to 31-14-3. Mark Scheifele had an assist as well and joined Blake Wheeler as the only two players to have 200 career road assists for the Jets/Thrashers franchise. Winnipeg will travel to Denver and will face the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.
MISTAKES HURT JETS
After playing some of their best defensive hockey over a six-game stretch at home allowing just nine goals over that stretch. This evening against Utah, Winnipeg played solid hockey for the first 30 minutes allowing four unanswered goals over a 12-minute stretch at the end of the second and beginning of the third. Three of the goals came off odd man rushes which was odd to see considering how well the Jets had defended before Monday night.
"It was really big in the sense that we didn't win a whole lot of battles. They got in on the forecheck, created the turnovers. Even though it was 0-0 for a long stretch there, we still didn't get enough opportunities and didn't do enough to win that hockey game," said Scott Arniel.
"Our execution, a lot of those things, not good enough. That's on me. I've got to push these guys to be a heck of a lot better than that."
SHOWED SOME FIGHT
28 seconds after Matias Maccelli had made it 4-0 Utah, the Jets finally solved Connor Ingram scoring twice in 3:16 to cut Utah’s lead in half. At 8:32, Nino Niederreiter scored his 13th of the season when his shot snuck underneath Ingram and trickled over the goal line. Dylan DeMelo recorded his third of the campaign, one-timing a pass from Nikolaj Ehlers past Ingram.