Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
The Winnipeg Jets Andrew Ladd opened the scoring at 10:01 with his 23rd of the season to make it 1-0 assist to Bryan Little. The Jets out shot the Phoenix Coyotes 8-7. The Jets had most of the play and held the Coyotes to only 5 shots with a minute left in the period. It was a similar start to the game in Anaheim the night before.
The second period got off to a bad start as the Coyotes tied it up 1-1 only 19 seconds into the period on a goal by Zbynek Michalek his 2nd of the year from Antoine Vermette and Mikkel Boedker. The Coyotes pressured the Jets the entire period but Ondrej Pavelec was up to the task stopping everything they threw at him the rest of the period. Shots were 14-6 Phoenix. The Jets were looking a little tired but did have a few flurries late in the period.
The third period solved nothing as the Coyotes out shot the Jets 7-6 for a three period total of 29-20 for the Coyotes. The officials had another banner night and they only made 3 calls the entire game 2 of them wrong and one missed call. Eric Tangradi put his shoulder into the shoulder of a Phoenix player from the side and they called him for boarding but it was a clean bodycheck, Tangradi and Paul Maurice had some choice words for the officials after that call. Little took a stick to the face late in the third and no call was made.
In overtime Blake Wheeler‘s stick came up high but just grazed the helmet of the Phoenix player and he jerked his head back like he’d been shot and Wheeler went off for highsticking with 1:15 left in overtime. The Jets killed it off and we headed to the shootout. The Jets out shot the Coyotes in overtime 2-1 and the Coyotes out shot the Jets 30-22 over all.
The Jets saved their season by taking it to overtime to live another day. In the shootout Andrew Ladd was the only one to score for both teams and the Jets took the game 2-1. So the Jets get 2 points and keep their slim playoff hopes alive. This wraps up the 5 game road trip and the Jets head home to play the Pittsburgh Penguins, Thursday 7 pm at MTS Centre.
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