Jets drop second straight on road trip with setback in Toronto

Pierre-Luc Dubois had the frustration all over his face after the Winnipeg Jets dropped a 4-1 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

It was the second straight loss on the five-game road trip (after Tuesday’s setback in Montreal), and even though the Jets played much better on Thursday, three errors in the second period led to all the offence Toronto would need.

“We played some good minutes but against these good teams, you give them a little bit and they take a lot,” said Dubois. “Just mistakes that lead to goals. That was it.”

Auston Matthews scored twice, his 23rd and 24th of the season in the opening 3:39 of the second period, and Mitch Marner followed up with a shorthanded marker with 6:11 left in the middle frame.

Kyle Connor responded for Winnipeg in the third, but Mark Giordano’s empty netter with under three minutes to go in regulation halted any chance of a comeback.

“You start having to do an uphill climb, it’s tough against a good team,” said defenceman Nate Schmidt. “Trying to climb that mountain as the game goes on is hard. It wears you down as you’re trying to push and push and push. As the game went on I like how our guys didn’t go away, especially in the third period. You just can’t really spot them a period.”

After the first period, it was almost impossible to think that Winnipeg would be the team trailing in the second. The Jets outshot Toronto 16-6 and had over 60 percent of the five-on-five shot attempts according to Natural Stat Trick, but Ilya Samsonov stood tall, as did Connor Hellebuyck in the Winnipeg net.

Perhaps one play in particular summed up the pace. Hellebuyck made a great stop on Matthews in the slot off the rush, and just seconds later – at the other end – Ehlers wired a shot off the post.

It was chances like that one that loomed large at the end of the night for the Jets.

“We couldn’t get that timely goal that I talked a lot about and their goalie made a lot of big saves for them,” said head coach Rick Bowness. “It was a much better effort, much better compete. The score was the same – I get that – and if we have created that many scoring chances on Saturday, we got the goal-scorers, the puck will go in.”

Video: WPG@TOR: Connor puts Jets on the board with a PPG 

Then came the second period.

Matthews took a pass from Morgan Rielly shortly after the opening face-off and made a quick move to enter the zone with some speed, and used the open space to send a wrist shot past Hellebuyck for his 23rd of the season. 

He then put Toronto up 2-0 just 3:39 later, as he converted a Michael Bunting backhand pass into the slot, a laser beam into the top corner.

“There’s a lot of things we can improve on,” said Dubois, who nearly stopped that Bunting pass into the slot. “I don’t want to get into details here, but it’s a lot of things we can improve on as a team, 5-on-5, we want to attack with five and defend with five. I think we can do a lot better at that.”

Video: POSTGAME | Pierre-Luc Dubois

Even a power play opportunity later in the second period couldn’t turn the momentum in Winnipeg’s favour, as Marner took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone and snapped one past Hellebuyck off the rush to make it 3-0. Marner’s second shorthanded tally of the season extended his franchise record point streak on home ice to 20 games.

“We can do a better job of getting ourselves back into games when something like that happens to start a period,” said Schmidt. “Things like that are going to happen. Nobody is perfect. Good players are going to score when you give them chances. We have a group that is capable of coming back in a situation like that and being a little more urgent when something like that does happen.”

The Jets got on the board thanks to a 5-on-3 power play chance early in the third. Connor blasted home his second power play goal in as many games, his 23rd of the season was a rocket from the right circle into the top corner. Josh Morrissey set up Connor, earning his 50th point of the season – becoming the fourth defenceman in franchise history to do so, joining Dustin Byfuglien, Toby Enstrom, and Jacob Trouba. 

At that point, there was still a minute of power play time left, but despite more good quality chances – including another for Connor in tight at five-on-five, and a shot off the rush from Morgan Barron that was blocked by Matthews – but the Jets just couldn’t get that next goal.

“We get the 5-on-3 and (the first unit) gives us a goal and we have a chance to get back into the game and our power play has to do a much better job,” Schmidt said of his unit, after the Jets finished 1-for-4 on the man advantage. “We get a minute after we score a 5-on-3 goal to do something, at least create some momentum for our group and that’s on the five guys that go out after (the goal) to be much better.”

The next opportunity to get back in the win column comes on Saturday against Ottawa.

“You start losing games and nobody feels bad about that in this league,” said Dubois. “Start losing games and teams see that as an advantage for themselves. Especially on the road on this long road trip, we’re going to need to turn it around and it starts in Ottawa.”