Three things – Jets run into hot goaltender

TORONTO – The Winnipeg Jets closed out their three-game road trip with a 1-0 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. After a quiet first period where he only faced four shots, Laurent Brossoit was outstanding, making 29 saves. The Jets will close out their schedule before the player/All-Star break Saturday against the Maple Leafs at Canada Life Centre.

RAN INTO HOT GOALTENDER

After a tough first couple of periods in Boston on Monday, the Jets made sure they were ready to go in the opening 20 minutes in Toronto. Winnipeg outshot the Leafs 16-4 in the period and had numerous quality scoring chances that were turned aside by Ilya Samsonov. The best ones came off the sticks of Rasmus Kupari and Nikolaj Ehlers. Samsonov did it again in the second period when he stopped Adam Lowry and then Morgan Barron on a shorthanded two-on-none. The Leafs netminder then made a game saving stop on Ehlers in overtime after the Danish forward toe dragged the puck around a Leafs player and Samsonov got a shoulder on it.

“I’ve seen that move before. I like it. I don’t like it as a defender because it’s tough to play against. He’s got that move… he sells it so well, because a lot of times he comes down and shoots, so you have to honour that,” said Nate Schmidt.

“Guys that can do that all-in-one motion, it’s very hard as a defenceman to read it. It takes one half second, that blade opens up and you know that you’re toast. He makes a great play. Goalie makes a great save.” 

LOSING MORRISSEY

The Jets came into the night short two players from their top line in Mark Scheifele (lower body) and Gabe Vilardi (lower body). The Jets then lost Josh Morrissey late in the first period after the defenceman took a puck in the groin region and did not return. That put the Jets down to five defencemen through the final two periods and overtime. Neil Pionk played 26:50, Dylan DeMelo 25:43, Brenden Dillon 25:30, Dylan Samberg 20:48 and Nate Schmidt 18:36 in Morrissey’s absence.

THE PK

The Jets penalty kill has really raised its level as of late and when they ran into penalty problems in the second period, they did a great job containing the dangerous Leafs power play. Winnipeg killed off five straight Leaf man advantages before they got their first power play in the third period. The Jets penalty killers held Toronto to just 10 shots and Brossoit was solid. The Jets goaltender has now gone seven straight starts allowing two goals or less. Brossoit was asked about all the penalties that were called against the Jets, especially in the second period.

“Yeah, you don’t want to see that, but at the same time it almost gave us a boost by the third just because we killed so many penalties,” said Brossoit.

“It almost turned into our momentum.”