The Winnipeg Jets are officially slumping.
After failing to find the back of the net Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the Jets were almost shutout again Thursday night in Philadelphia, scoring in the final minutes of a 4-1 loss that extends their season-long winless skid to five games.
The Jets gave up three even strength goals in the opening period for the first time all season. Philly added a fourth tally in the middle frame and Kyle Connor scored with just five minutes left to finally end their scoring drought at 115 minutes.
The Jets have scored only four times over their last five games, while getting shutout twice. And going back even further, they have only 10 markers in their last eight contests.
Jets captain Adam Lowry acknowledged afterwards the scoring slump is starting to weigh on them.
“Maybe I don’t want to admit, I think sometimes it does though,” said Lowry. “When you got those chances now, you’re just not as confident pulling the trigger. You’re deferring, you’re kinda looking for the next best option when maybe you are the best option.
“There’s no secret formula. There’s no magic potion that kinda gives you that mojo back.”
Travis Konecny, Morgan Frost, and Ryan Poehling all had a goal and an assist for the Flyers. Tyson Foerster also found the net in the win. Konecny had a Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist, fight) in the first period that included a fight with Neal Pionk.
The Jets sleepwalked through the first period, getting badly outplayed, and out-chanced in getting outshot 13-4.
“The most important thing from that is how you respond,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. “I thought we responded very well. In the second and third periods we dominated. We’re not getting that big goal at the right time.”
The Jets’ power play woes also continued as they went 0-for-3 and have scored just once in their last 30 chances on the man advantage.
Bowness was asked afterwards if his group is a little fragile right now with the losses continuing to pile up.
“It starts with me,” he said. “We’ll pull through this.”
If there is a positive to take out of their fifth straight defeat, it’s they outshot the Flyers 25-8 over the final two periods.
“At the end of the day, we know we’re better than that,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “And I thought in the second and third period we carried the play.”
The Jets now return home for a short two-game homestand with plenty of practice time to work out the kinks with just two games over their next eight days.
“This group – we can handle adversity,” DeMelo said. “We feel confident about that. It’ll be nice to get back home and play in front of I’m sure will be a great crowd on Saturday night.
“We’re learning every day here. We’re gonna continue to get better and we’ll get out of this little rut, I guess you could say, together.”
Logan Stanley returned to the Jets’ lineup for the first time since mid-December with Brenden Dillon serving the first game of his three game suspension.
The Flyers wasted little time getting on the board, opening the scoring 3:37 into the game.
Poehling took a cross-ice pass as he skated into the Winnipeg zone. Pionk tried to get in his way but Poehling was able to send a pass to the front of the net where Foerster was driving hard, beating Gabriel Vilardi to the crease and redirecting the puck past Laurent Brossoit.
The Flyers failed on a pair of power plays in the period but at 5-on-5, an area where the Jets have excelled this season, Philadelphia capitalized with a pair of tallies to blow the game open.
After the Flyers won a faceoff in Winnipeg’s end, a shot from the point was partially blocked, causing the puck to pinball around the slot before Konecny found it and buried it to make it 2-0 just over 14 minutes into the first.
Roughly four minutes later, Frost had the puck in the Jets’ zone as he attempted a centering pass. The puck deflected off the foot of Morgan Barron then into the face of Nate Schmidt before falling to the ice close to the crease, creating a mad scramble that resulted in Frost getting to the puck and banking it off the post and in.
The Flyers carried a 13-4 edge in shots on goal as Winnipeg struggled to generate any kind of meaningful pressure.
The Jets started the second with a good push, resulting in a penalty on Konecny just over two minutes into the middle frame but instead of creating momentum with the power play, Winnipeg surrendered a deflating shorthanded goal to Poehling off the rush, making it 4-0 just seven seconds into the man advantage.
Winnipeg would dominate on the shot clock in the middle frame 15-3 but it was mostly quantity over quality as they continued to be shutout through 40 minutes.
The Jets finally broke the goose egg when Connor tucked one around Samuel Ersson with 5:12 to go, ensuring they wouldn’t be shutout in consecutive games for the first time since relocating from Atlanta.
It was also Connor’s second goal since returning from injury last month and first that beat a goalie as his previous tally was into an empty net.
That was all Winnipeg could muster on the night as the goals have dried up, having now scored just 12 goals in their last nine games.
Brossoit gets saddled with the loss, stopping 17 shots as his streak of starts in which he allowed two goals or fewer ends at seven. Ersson turned aside 28 shots for the win.
The Jets now return home to face the Penguins Saturday night.
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