After a night full of penalties and an overall entertaining 5-3 win on Friday night against the Calgary Flames, the Jets concluded their three game home stand this afternoon against the Utah Mammoth. The now 6-2-0 Jets took on the 7-2-0 Mammoth at Canada Life Centre, looking to continue their winning ways in a battle for top spot in the Central Division. I’ll be honest, I’ve been checking the NHL standings less so far this season, and I had no idea that the Mammoth were off to this great of a start. The Jets top players were one of the bigger stories tonight, but unfortunately their play wasn’t enough to help the Jets come out with the victory.

Tonight’s Jets lineup was a bit different than last game. The 1st and 4th foward lines have stayed relatively the same throughout the Jets first 8 games, but there continues to be some experimentation with the 2nd and 3rd lines. Tonight Alex Iafallo was on the 2nd line with Jonathan Toews and Nikita Chibrikov. The 3rd line featured Nino Niederreiter, Vladislav Namestnikov and Gustav Nyquist. The Jets also made a swap on defence. Haydn Fleury moved up to the 2nd pairing with Neal Pionk, while Logan Stanley moved down to the 3rd pairing with Colin Miller. Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal, as he looked to continue his early season success. Spoiler alert, Hellebuyck was pretty great again tonight.

The 1st period started off slowly, as both teams looked to get the first goal of the game. The Jets ended up outshooting the Mammoth 8-6 after 20 minutes, with Vitek Vanecek and Connor Hellebuyck looking sharp in net. Not only was there no scoring in the 1st, but there was also no penalties taken. If you’ve watched the last few Jets games you’ll know about the penalties that were happening early and often, but tonight that wasn’t the case.

The 2nd period started off great for the Jets. Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey set up Dylan DeMelo at the point. On the Jets 1st shot of the period, a DeMelo slap shot went past a screened Vanecek into the back of the net, making it 1-0 Jets.

A few minutes after this goal, the Jets took the 1st penalty of the game, a high sticking call on Nikita Chibrikov. Despite a busy past few games for the penalty killers, they looked sharp again tonight. However, that changed when the Jets took their 2nd penalty of the game near the halfway point, when Neal Pionk was called for puck over glass delay of game.

Right off a face off win by Nick Schmaltz, Mikhail Sergachev fired a wrist shot that went past a screened Hellebuyck. 64 seconds later, the Mammoth suddenly took the lead in the game. Nate Schmidt sent Kailer Yamamoto in on a 2 on 1 rush. Yamamoto made a great pass across to Michael Carcone, who snapped up past a sprawling Hellebuyck.

The Mammoth lead only lasted 4 minutes though, as the Jets cashed in on their 1st powerplay of the night. With seconds remaining in the man advantage, Gabriel Vilardi and Josh Morrissey set up Mark Scheifele near the slot. After turning towards the net, Scheifele wristed one into the back of the net, tying this game at 2.

This goal was special for two reasons. Mark Scheifele is now tied for the league lead in goals with 8. Josh Morrissey’s assist was his 300th career assist, the first defenceman in Jets history to reach that mark. The 2nd period ended tied at 2, but the Mammoth doubled the Jets in shots on goal in the 2nd period 16-8.

The 3rd and final period of this game was fairly even throughout the 20 minutes. Nikita Chibrikov and JJ Peterka were called for roughing almost 6 minutes in, but the 4 on 4 resulted in nothing. Luke Schenn was called for interference near the 10 minute mark, but the Jets penalty kill came up huge again at this important part of the game.

With just over 5 minutes left in the game, the Mammoth took a 3-2 lead. JJ Peterka and Logan Cooley set up Dylan Guenther as he cut towards the net, and on the one timer he shot the puck perfectly over Hellebuyck’s shoulder into the back of the net. Guenther’s 5th of the season would unfortunately be tonight’s game winner, as the Jets couldn’t manage to get a game tying goal. A late too many men penalty limited the amount of time the Jets could have a 6 on 5, and they couldn’t tie it up in the end. The final shots on goal were 32-30 for the Mammoth, as they held on to improve their current win streak to 7 in a row.

With the Jets three game home stand now complete, the Jets regular season schedule continues on Tuesday in Minnesota against the Wild. Puck drop for this game will be just after 7:00 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.