Winnipeg Jets Struggle in 5-2 Loss to Nashville Predators
The Winnipeg Jets had a great opportunity last night in Nashville to pick up two critical points against a Central Division opponent as they look to make their way back into playoff position.
But the Jets let this opportunity go to the wayside as they struggled on both offense and defense and lost 5-2.
This was one of those games where you could predict it was not going to go the Jets way from the opening puck drop.
The Nashville Predators scored three unanswered goals in the first period to take a 3-0 lead over the Winnipeg Jets
The Jets started the second period, much better than they did in the first and were rewarded with a five-on-three powerplay goal courtesy of Pierre-Luc Dubois.
After that goal, the Jets dominated the play and had a couple of great opportunities but Juuse Saros made some outstanding saves to stop the Jets from getting within one goal of the lead.
After Winnipeg’s powerplay chances, Luke Kunin then scored to increase Nashville’s lead to 4-1 at the end of two periods.
Winnipeg started the third period extremely well and scored a goal 25 seconds into the final frame to make it a 4-2 game. But again, Saros and Nashville’s defense stood strong to deny Winnipeg from scoring the rest of the frame.
Finally, in the last minute of the game, Tanner Jeannot put the icing on the cake by scoring to give Nashville a 5-2 lead.
The Winnipeg Jets lose despite heavily outshooting the Predators
At the end of the game, the Jets had outshot the Predators 38-23 including outshooting them 14-8 in the second period and 15-4 in the third period.
This shows that the Jets controlled the play for most of the game, especially in the second and third periods, but failed to take their chances, while the Predators capitalized on their opportunities.
The Jets finished the game one-for-five on the powerplay and Juuse Saros deserves full credit for the win as he stopped 36 shots including stopping eight of the nine shots he faced while shorthanded.
With this loss, the Jets currently have a 3-2-1 record after six games of this eight-game road trip. The Jets face a tough test this weekend as they have back-to-back games. On Saturday, the Jets will face the Bruins in Boston and then on Sunday, the Jets travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins.
