The Jets overall positive eight game home stand concluded on Tuesday night with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Predators, finishing with a 5-2-1 record over the last two weeks of home games. Tonight, the Jets hit the road to begin a three game road trip starting in Boston against the Bruins. The Jets are suddenly now just four points out of a wildcard spot with 15 games remaining prior to tonight. The 28-28-11 Jets took on the 37-23-8 Bruins, a team that entered tonight on a 4-3-3 stretch in their last 10 games as they continue to hold on to a wildcard spot.

The Jets line combinations continued to remain the same as recent games against the Bruins. Alex Iafallo is still on the 1st line, Gabriel Vilardi stays on line 2, Isak Rosen appears locked on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, and Cole Koepke, Morgan Barron and Brad Lambert form the 4th line. Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo are the top defense pairing, Elias Salomonsson and Dylan Samberg form the 2nd pair, while the 3rd pairing is still Haydn Fleury with Jacob Bryson.

Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal as he continues to get the majority of starts after the Olympic break. The Jets lineup have four players out due to injuries: Neal Pionk, Colin Miller, Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 17-18-10 record, a 2.76 GAA and a .900 SV%. Tonight’s game started with the Bruins opening the scoring late in the 1st, before the Bruins eventually ran away with this game late in the third as the Jets suffered a big road loss.

The Jets opened this game with good pace, before Gustav Nyquist took a tripping penalty four minutes or so after puck drop. The Bruins were unsuccessful on their first powerplay of the night, and then two minutes later the Jets got their first (4 minutes) man advantage of the night. The Jets also couldn’t open the scoring, and the game remained scoreless late into the 1st period.

With just over 5 minutes left in the first, David Pastrnak opened the scoring for the Bruins. After one chance in front, the Jets failed to clear the puck out of their zone, and Pastrnak stole the puck and sniped it past Hellebuyck for his 27th goal of the season.

Pastrnak’s goal would be the only goal in the first 20 minutes. Shots on goal were 13-9 for the Bruins, as they looked like the better team for a few long stretches. The Jets would need a strong 2nd period to gain some momentum, but that didn’t happen tonight.

No penalties were taken in the 2nd period, and the Bruins outshot the Jets 8-7. Around 6 minutes into the 2nd, the Bruins dumped the puck into the Jets zone around the boards. Hellebuyck misplayed the puck big time, and the puck went in front. Lukas Reichel, making his Bruins debut, raced in to shoot the loose puck into the partially open cage. The Bruins now held a 2-0 lead on Reichel’s 3rd goal of the season.

The Jets didn’t have the best of pushbacks after this goal, and it continued to be 2-0 Bruins late into the 2nd. With less than 2 minutes to play, a bit of a scrambly play ended up past Hellebuyck after Zacha got the puck in close for Viktor Arvidsson’s 19th goal of the season.

At the end of the 2nd period, it wasn’t looking like the Jets had much of a chance at winning going into the final period. Shots on goal were 21-16 for the Bruins, and it would take a sensational final 20 minutes for the Jets to battle back tonight on the road.

The 3rd didn’t start well for the Jets, as the Bruins soon made it 4-0. Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt set up Pavel Zacha for a quick snap shot near the faceoff dot which breezed by Hellebuyck to pretty much put this game out of reach.

Two minutes later the Bruins took their second penalty of the night. Just 36 seconds into the 5 on 4, Jonathan Toews scored his 9th goal of the season, breaking Swayman’s shutout. Some good puck movement set up Brad Lambert, who sent the puck back to Salomonsson for a shot from the point. Toews was in front and deflected the puck into the net, and he now has a goal in back to back games.

Two minutes after this goal the Jets went back on the powerplay, but they weren’t able to get any closer on this advantage. With 10 minutes remaining, the Bruins continued to lead 4-1, with the shots on goal now 24-20 for the Bruins. There weren’t anymore penalties in the game, but the Bruins would score a pair of goals in the final five minutes.

Fraser Minten scored his 16th goal of the season with about 4 minutes left, followed by Jonathan Aspirot scoring his 3rd goal of the season with just less than 2 minutes left. The final buzzer went and the Jets were defeated 6-1 by the hosting Bruins. Final shots on goal were 28-24 Bruins, who found different ways to get on the scoresheet tonight in front of their fans. Despite the score, it wasn’t the worst effort ever for the Jets tonight, but there’s still lots of work for them to do if they want to keep their slim playoff hopes alive later into the season.

After this first game of the road trip, the Jets will travel to Pittsburgh to begin a weekend afternoon back to back against the Penguins and Rangers. Their regular season schedule continues on Saturday in Pittsburgh with a game against the Penguins. Puck drop for this game will be just after 12:00 pm CDT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including any playoff push updates), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.