The gap was a little narrower than last week and those last two minutes were a bit sketchy as the @Winnipeg Jets hung on for a critical 3-2 win over the @Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. Also unlike last Sunday, you could make the argument the Jets had a better overall effort through the entire game as Paul Maurice blended lines and may have stumbled upon an AHL Moose favorite group that won the game tonight.

Another alarming bad start for the Jets, but thankfully not as long as the three or four great scoring chances that Chicago gets early on gives way to a little more of an even game. The biggest issue in the first period is really the inability of the Jets to execute clean zone exits. When they do, they are getting to the Chicago net and creating chances – they actually outshot the Hawks 14-10 in the first period, but the jets spend far too much time chasing the puck in their own end of the ice and it eventually leads to a 1-0 Hawks lead when @Patrick Kane flips a puck off of @Ryan Carpenter.

In the second, the newly formed third line of @Jack Roslovic, @Mason Appleton and @Jansen Harkins gets to work and shows off some of the skill that made them a dynamic line with the AHL Manitoba Moose as they give the Jets a 2-1 lead with a pair of goals

In between those two Jets goals, we thought that maybe @Kyle Connor had scored a goal off of a crazy bounce from the boards behind Hawks goalie @Corey Crawford, but the NHL ruled it no-goal as they say the puck went off KC’s hands, even though it looked more like the elbow…

The second period was actually a fine one for the Jets who had plenty of zone time in Chicago’s end, but it was the final five minutes of the period where the Blackhawks started making a push and a last minute goal from Patrick Kane evened things up at 2-2 and made for a tense third period.

Early into that third period, the Jets continued their trend of taking shots from distance, but having traffic in front of Crawford which caused him all kinds of headaches on the night. @Nathan beaulieu finally scored his first goal of the season off of a massive bomb.

Despite the late flurry of chances by the Hawks, including a final two minutes of play where the Hawks did everything in the Jets zone but actually score, the Jets hung on for a 3-2 win.

 

The Jets bent, but didn’t break on the defensive end of things and that newly formed third line of Roslovic / Appleton / Harkins was fantastic. It wasn’t perfect, but the Jets put forth a much needed solid 60 minute effort against the Blackhawks.

 

 

 

The Jets got one more home game to go for this homestand as they’ll welcome the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. Puck drop is 6:00 PM CST and can be seen on TSN 3 and heard on TSN 1290.