The Jets perfect home stand was snapped against the Ducks back on Tuesday by a score of 4-1. The Jets opened the scoring, but a stretch of three Ducks goals in under three minutes in the 2nd period carried them to victory, while the Jets only got 13 shots on goal all game. Tonight, the Jets played their fifth straight game at Canada Life Centre. With other Western Conference teams struggling lately, the Jets are now suddenly just five points out of a playoff spot, but they’re still behind four teams for the 2nd wild card spot. The 26-27-10 Jets took on the 26-30-8 Rangers, a team that entered the game on a 4-4-2 stretch in their last 10 games, but remain last in the Eastern Conference.

There were no changes to the Jets line combinations tonight. Alex Iafallo remains on the 1st line, while Gabriel Vilardi remains on line 2. Isak Rosen is still on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, while Cole Koepke, Morgan Barron and Brad Lambert formed the 4th line. With Morrissey now fully back in action, the 2nd pairing is now Dylan Samberg with Elias Salomonsson, while the 3rd pairing is still Haydn Fleury with the newly acquired Jacob Bryson.

Connor Hellebuyck continued his stretch of games as the Jets starter post-Olympic break. The Jets lineup continues to deal with several injuries, including Neal Pionk, Colin Miller, Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov. These two teams will meet again in New York on March 22nd.  Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 16-17-9 record, a 2.74 GAA and a .902 SV%. Tonight’s game started with an early Rangers goal, and after both teams traded several goals, the Rangers pulled away and won this game despite getting outshot.

Tonight’s game started with Gabriel Vilardi taking a hooking penalty one minute after puck drop. The Jets won the ensuing face off, but a failed clearing attempt by Cole Koepke was intercepted by Mika Zibanejad, who found Adam Fox at the point. Fox fired a slap shot through the crowd in front into the back of the net for his 5th goal of the season on the Rangers first shot of the game.

The Jets got the next few chances after the Rangers opening goal, but after 10 minutes the shots on goal were only 3-2 for the Jets. With about 9 minutes left in the 1st, the Jets got their first powerplay of the game after an interference call on Vladislav Gavrikov. This powerplay had some good structure and the Jets got 2 shots on goal in the two minutes but couldn’t tie this game at one.

Both teams were pushing for the next first period goal, but that never came. Tonight started as another one of those Jets games with not a lot of shots on goal, with just 5 for the Jets and 3 for the Rangers. The Jets had some adversity to overcome for the rest of tonight’s game.

The 2nd started off nicely for the Jets, as newly acquired Isak Rosen scored his 4th of the season and first as a Jet. Also newly acquired Jacob Bryson fired a shot on goal from the point after receiving a pass for Gustav Nyquist, and Rosen was in front to deflect the puck past Igor Shesterkin to even this game at one.

Winnipeg carried some momentum after this goal for a little while, but five minutes later the Rangers regained their lead. The Rangers scored pretty similarly to how the Jets scored, with a passing play setting up a point shot from Will Borgen which was deflected in by Alexis Lafreniere for his 19th goal of the season.

Three minutes after the Rangers re-took the lead, the Jets took a penalty, but defended well on the penalty kill to keep this a one goal game. The Jets continued to get their chances down one, before Elias Salomonsson and Mark Scheifele set up Kyle Connor for a beautiful goal. Connor entered the Rangers zone and dangled by one defender followed by another quick deke, before collecting the puck and firing the puck top shelf for his 29th goal of the season.

This goal rewarded the Jets for a strong stretch of play, and took this game to being tied at two after two periods. Shots on goal were now 16-9 for the Jets, who outshot the Rangers 10-6 in the second frame. Although this game was tied, Jets fans were feeling pretty good going into the final 20 minutes at home.

The 3rd didn’t start in the Jets favour, as the Rangers took a 3-2 lead just over a minute into the 3rd. Brayden Schneider set up Matthew Robertson at the point, who shot the puck on goal along the ice. Tye Kartye made a well-timed deflection that fooled Hellebuyck for Kartye’s 5th goal of the season.

The Rangers lead didn’t last long, as the Jets tied the game three minutes later. Cole Perfetti fed the puck to Adam Lowry in the slot and he got a shot on goal. Gabriel Vilardi was near the goal and gathered the rebound before deking to the backhand and sliding the puck into the net for his 25th of the season, tying this game at three.

Both teams continued to trade chances early in the 3rd, and just around three minutes later Gabe Perreault scored his 7th of the season. Alexis Lafreniere sent the puck to Braden Schneider at the point, and Perrault deflected the puck past Hellebuyck for the Rangers’ 3rd deflection (this one was more of a tap in) goal of this game.

Five minutes later the Rangers extended their lead, scoring their 5th goal on just 16 shots. Conor Sheary found Vincent Trocheck down low, who made a nice pass out front to Adam Edstrom, who snapped home his 3rd of the season to make it 5-3 Rangers with 9 minutes to go.

Both teams stayed out of the penalty box in the 3rd, and the Jets took their timeout and pulled the goalie with just under two minutes remaining. The Jets couldn’t get any quality chances with the 6 on 5, and Noah Laba wrapped up this game with his 8th goal of the season into the empty net with 51 seconds remaining. The final buzzer went, and the Rangers left Canada Life Centre with a 6-3 win. Final shots on goal were 26-17 in favour of the Jets, but the Rangers were able to get a few deflection goals and capitalize on their somewhat limited chances in this game.

After tonight’s loss the Jets will reset for a day again, before continuing their season-long eight game homestand (from March 3rd to 17th) on Saturday afternoon. Their regular season schedule continues at Canada Life Centre with a game against the team at the top of the NHL league standings, the Colorado Avalanche. Puck drop for this game will be just after 3:00 pm CDT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the upcoming push for the playoffs), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.