After just 1 goal over the past 120 minutes of hockey, the Jets stayed in California for one more night, as they continued their season long six game Western road trip tonight in Anaheim. The now 9-5-0 Jets took on the surprising 10-3-1 Ducks at Honda Center, looking to leave California with a win. The Ducks have maybe been the best “surprise” story so far, as although they’ve already been through some rebuilding seasons, it looks like the roster is finally starting to look like a playoff team. The Jets, wearing their away white jerseys on the road, didn’t get off to the start they wanted, and now they find themselves 0-3-0 on this season long six game Western road trip.

Tonight’s Jets lineup was slightly different, as Cole Perfetti returned for his 1st regular season game.  The 1st line remained unchanged, but the other lines were changed to make space for Perfetti. Cole Perfetti replaced Alex Iafallo on the 2nd line with Jonathan Toews and Vladislav Namestnikov. The 3rd line featured Nino Niederreiter, Adam Lowry and Alex Iafallo. Parker Ford continues to center the 4th line, this time alongside Nikita Chibrikov and Tanner Pearson. Gustav Nyquist and Morgan Barron remain on the injury report.

The Jets defence pairings remained the same as last game, as Dylan Samberg continues to get closer to returning. Eric Comrie got the start in goal, as he looked to continue his strong play from his first three starts. Comrie entered tonight’s game with a 3-0-0 record, a 2.33 GAA and a .929 SV%. Tonight, Comrie was just alright (giving up a few goals that maybe shouldn’t have squeaked by), and it wasn’t good enough to help give the Jets the win.

The Ducks were the better team for most of the first 10 minutes of this game. Shots on goal were 5-2 Ducks at one point, and 7:18 into the game Beckett Sennecke scored his 5th of the season. The Ducks took the 1-0 lead after a pair of nice passes set up Sennecke in front.

That goal seemed to wake up the Jets, who didn’t have the best of starts tonight. Just over a minute later the Jets got their 1st powerplay of the night after a Ross Johnston holding call. The Jets powerplay has been struggling as of late, and the struggles continued tonight. The top unit had some chances, but none good enough to tie this game.

The Jets would get their 2nd powerplay of the night 2+ minutes after the 1st powerplay expired, but the result was the same and the game remained 1-0 Ducks. Logan Stanley was called for roughing with just under 2 minutes left in the 1st, sending the Ducks on their 1st powerplay of the night. Halfway into the powerplay, Chris Kreider and Troy Terry set up Leo Carlsson, who fired one from near the face off dot past Comrie.

Carlsson’s 9th of the season extended his personal point streak to 10 games and gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead on this powerplay.  At the end of the 1st the Ducks led 2-0, with the Jets leading in shots on goal 9-8. The Jets couldn’t capitalize on their chances, including a near open net for Perfetti where he slid the puck just wide. Luckily for the Jets there was 40 minutes left to play, but they would need to starting finding ways of scoring as soon as possible.

The 2nd opened with a good pace from both teams as they looked for that next important goal. It took a while, but the Jets finally scored their 2nd goal on this six game road trip. At the 4:22 mark, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey set up Kyle Connor, who snapped one on goal from the slot that took a slight deflection before finding its way past Lukas Dostal to make it a 1 goal game.

The goal marked Kyle Connor’s 600th career NHL point, and it would hopefully lead to a Jets come back in this game. Dylan DeMelo took a slashing call one minute later, but thankfully the Jets penalty killers stopped any momentum from suddenly shifting to the Ducks. Just when it looked like the Jets were battling back in this game the Ducks made it 3-1. Mason McTavish and Cutter Gauthier set up Beckett Sennecke, and on the rebound he got just enough to knock it past Comrie into the back of the net.

Less than a minute later, the Jets got their 3rd powerplay of the night. The opportunity was there for the Jets to get right back in this game, but unfortunately it was another failed powerplay to fall to 0 for 3 on the night. Just two minutes after the powerplay ended, Cole Perfetti took a penalty, giving the Ducks their 3rd powerplay of the night with just over 3 minutes left in the 2nd. The Jets penalty kill was sharp again, and after 40 minutes played it was 3-1 Ducks, with the shots on goal 17-14 for the Ducks.

Haydn Fleury was called for slashing at the 1:47 mark of the 3rd, giving the Ducks their 4th powerplay of the night. You knew at some point one of these teams would score again on the powerplay, and tonight it was the Ducks, who improved to 2 for 4 on the man advantage. Jackson Lacombe and Chris Kreider set up Leo Carlsson in the slot, and his shot had just enough to squeak by Comrie and into the back of the net to make it 4-1 Ducks.

Now down three, the Jets would really need something to get going quick if they wanted to leave California with a point. A delay of game call on the Ducks gave the Jets their 4th powerplay of the night, but just as what happened the rest of the night, the 5 on 4 advantage didn’t lead to a Jets goal.

The rest of this game went without any goals or penalties (with a late goal from Cutter Gauthier waved off after for offside), and the Jets fell 4-1 to the Ducks. The final shots on goal were 24-21 for the Jets, as they will now have to depart California 0-3-0, winless halfway through their season long six game road trip. Tonight the Jets showed some signs of a better performance, but some credit deserves to go to the Ducks, who continue to excel early into this season. The Ducks young players are quickly showing the organization the talent that will be with this team now and for the foreseeable future.

With the Jets six game road trip now done with the California portion, the Jets regular season schedule continues on Tuesday in Vancouver against the Pacific Division Vancouver Canucks. Puck drop for this game will be just after 9:00 pm CT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news, plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.