Jets open home stand with loss to Toronto

WINNIPEG – For some reason, when the Winnipeg Jets and the Toronto Maple Leafs face-off, it’s like they’re facing each other 10 times per season like in the old North Division from a couple seasons ago.

A rivalry was built then, and unfortunately for the fans inside Canada Life Centre on Saturday night, Toronto took the most recent chapter by a score of 4-1.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the lone goal for the Jets in the loss, which is Winnipeg’s second straight defeat.

“Every loss is a frustrating loss, especially two losses in a row,” said Dubois. “We always say you can’t lose two. To come back home, it’s a short home stand, to lose the first one hurts.”

In two meetings last season, the Jets and Maple Leafs combined for 19 goals and 114 penalty minutes.

While this game was somewhat more tame by those standards – there were only 30 penalty minutes on Saturday – Josh Morrissey was on the receiving end of 11 of those minutes.

The majority of which came after a hit on Toronto forward Nick Robertson near the Maple Leafs blue line. 

“I tried to pinch down and they always say either get the puck or the man. I tried to play the body,” said Morrissey. “The game happens fast and if it didn’t touch his stick, that’s interference and they got the right call. If it did, and I thought kept my arms down and stay as compact as possible and not try and drive up at his face.”

Shortly after that, Perfetti was hit into the boards below the Jets goal line, drawing another crowd and another round of unsportsmanlike conducts. 

Combine that with the dueling chants in the building, and the temperature was reaching the level expected when these two teams are across the ice from each other.

“They’re always near the top of the standings so you’ve got to be ready to play them,” Morrissey said. “You could hear it from before the national anthem even, tonight, you know, the battle of the Leafs and Jets chants. It’s always a fun atmosphere. I think that intensity just ramps the intensity up in the game.”

The Jets (2-3-0) got the opening goal off the stick of Dubois. He came up the right wing side as his line mates Blake Wheeler and Cole Perfetti executed a nice zone entry to back off the Toronto defence. Perfetti spotted Dubois through the seam and hit him on the tape, and Dubois followed up his shot to bury his own rebound.

Video: TOR@WPG: Dubois buries own rebound to take 1-0 lead

Dubois’ second of the season came 4:17 into the opening period, and extended his point streak (as well as Perfetti’s) to three games.

Stats like that didn’t mean much to Dubois after the game though. 

“I mean, at the end of the year if I score 50 and we don’t win, it doesn’t mean much to me,” he said. “If me not scoring means we win, I’ll take that.”

Toronto (4-2-0) responded on the power play at the midway point of the period, as John Tavares corralled a pass from William Nylander in the slot and lifted it past Hellebuyck’s blocker to tie things up at one.

As things always seem to between these two teams, the tempers started to flare up in the second as the physicality began to increase. Toronto grabbed their first lead with 5:26 remaining in the second, as David Kampf tucked away a Wayne Simmonds pass for his first of the season.

That proved to be the eventual game-winner, which was tough for the Jets to take as Mason Appleton was seemingly taken out of the play in the neutral zone seconds before the goal.

Video: POSTGAME | Pierre-Luc Dubois

Then, on a late power play – following unsportsmanlike conducts to Pierre-Luc Dubois, Michael Bunting, and Brenden Dillon after a questionable hit on Perfetti – Tavares scored on a deflection of an Auston Matthews wrist shot from the point to make it 3-1. 

The Maple Leafs finished 2-for-3 on the power play while the Jets came up empty on three opportunities.

“We hit a couple posts and there’s went in. We had some good looks and just didn’t capitalize on them,” said head coach Rick Bowness. “That’s what it comes down to. When they score two power play goals and we don’t score any.”

Despite the fact the Jets outshot Toronto 12-5 in the final period, they weren’t able to cut into the lead – even with Dubois hitting his second post of the evening – and when Hellebuyck was pulled for an extra attacker, Michael Bunting knocked in an empty netter to round out the scoring.

“I thought early in the second we started to play east to west and that slowed us down. When we were going great, we were going north, we had some good looks on the forecheck,” said Bowness. “They did a good job of rushing our D in the o-zone and blocking some shots, forcing some quicker shots than we wanted. We spent some good time in the o-zone, we just didn’t capitalize on it.”

The Jets close the home stand on Monday against the St. Louis Blues.