The Jets continue their strong play at home with a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils who looked every bit the part of a team at the end of a long seven game road trip and coming off a really bad loss in Toronto a few nights earlier.

The Jets won’t apologize though for taking advantage and taking the game mostly to them for pretty much the full 60 minutes. The Jets have now won three of their last four and seven of their last ten games.

A shaky early start in the first few minutes by the Jets that saw a couple of bad turnovers in their own end from Jacob Trouba and Connor Hellebuyck was quickly shaken off as the Jets blitzed the Devils early with a pair of goals.

It’s so good to see Jack Roslovic finally get his first of the season and hopefully it means a little more confidence on his part and more ice time from the coaching staff. The Devils did get one back about four minutes later as the team defense got caught in their own end and looking around a little too much as the Devils had them scrambling for a moment.

The Devils actually out-shot the Jets in the first period by a 13-11 margin as the Jets did get caught with a handful of turnovers. Break out plays out of their own end still remain a bit of an issue for the club.

Second Period

The Jets strike early yet again early into the period with Mark Scheifele scoring his second of the game. The Devils quickly replied with a beautiful snipe on a bad Jets line change to keep the game within one goal.

Again in the second period the Jets had an edge in shots 12-10 but it never really felt like they had any kind of control of the game. The Devils did generate eight high danger scoring chances to the Jets four in the middle frame (they had zero in the first period) but Hellebuyck was solid in goal not giving up many rebounds and the defense in front of him was strong in limiting second chance opportunities.

Speaking of strong, here is Dustin Byfuglien:

Couple of thoughts here…

One – If you like the idea of semi trucks running into each other, here you go.

Two: I do believe this is Byfuglien aiming for shoulder but the hit rides up into the head. I believe as well that Buff is also not looking to target the head and that Boyle’s spin out on the ice (just ask Luke Gazdic about that) makes it look far worse than it really was. Buff got two minutes, it’s almost a bit surprising he didn’t get more considering how sensitive the league has been with head hits, but I also doubt that NHL Player Safety looks at this play and does anything.

From there, the Jets resumed scoring.

Nik Ehlers back? Yes, three goals in three games would suggest to me that Nik Ehlers is back and feeling a lot better about his game. That goal came after a lot of sustained pressure by the Jets thanks to a delayed penalty as well which means it wasn’t a power play goal, but really… shouldn’t it count like one?

Third Period

Want to know what “score effects” looks like? Have a peek thanks to NaturalStatTrick.com.

Again, not that the Jets were bad – high scoring chances in the third period were 2-2 as the Jets didn’t really allow much even though the Devils again out-shot them in the third period 11-7. The Jets actually did have a stretch in the middle of the period where they came close a couple of times to scoring a sixth goal, but Corey Schneider had a pretty good third period.

No goals in the third period and very little from the Devils in the way of a push back as one team was happy to just get their road trip over with and the other was likely happy to just let the third period go by without much drama.

For Winnipeg: Mark Scheifele – It’s always fun watching a team try to force feed a guy the puck so he can get a hat trick, isn’t it? Maybe not the most adviseable thing to do, but still kinda fun to watch especially in a game like this. Mark at least had a three point night with two goals and a helper.

For New Jersey: Sami Vatanen – Not much to pick from on the Devils side of things for outstanding players. It clearly was the last game on a long road trip for them and you could see it in their play and body language. Vatanen had five shots on goal to lead the team, he was a lone bright spot, or at the very least the only Jersey defenseman who looked like they gave a solid effort.

The Jets next see action Wednesday night when the defending champs come into Winnipeg. Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals visit Bell MTS Place for a 7 PM CST puck drop on November 14.