Clutching onto the faintest of playoff hopes, the Winnipeg Jets took care of business in Montreal on Monday night, downing the Canadiens 4-2 to conclude a short two-game road trip.
With the Jets leading by one to start the third, the Canadiens tied the game with 13 minutes remaining, but it took only five minutes for Evgeny Svechnikov to restore the Jets’ lead for good in the team’s first visit to Quebec since being eliminated by the Habs in the playoffs last June.
Much like the end of that playoff series, the Jets were without Mark Scheifele, this time because of an upper-body injury suffered in Ottawa on Sunday. But Morgan Barron was promoted to the top line in his absence, and notched his first goal, and his first assist as a member of the Jets since the trade deadline deal.
Barron appeared to be a perfect fit playing alongside Paul Stastny and Nikolaj Ehlers.
“It made my life easy,” said Barron. “They’re both such smart players. I know Stas has been in the league for quite awhile and I’ve watched a lot of Ehlers in Halifax when he was playing for the Mooseheads, so, I was familiar with the way they played, and like I said, they’re just so helpful in terms of talking to you on the bench, talking to you on the ice.”
“He was great,” said interim head coach Dave Lowry. “We liked his game. A big body, got inside, kept his feet moving, created some offence, they moved the puck well. They played off each other.
“Sometimes it’s just finding a spot for a guy. And sometimes, it’s like we always say, right, the injuries provide opportunities and tonight he took advantage of it.”
The Jets were also without injured forwards Blake Wheeler, Jansen Harkins, and Cole Perfetti. Mikey Eyssimont made his NHL debut on the fourth line after being recalled from the Manitoba Moose earlier on Monday.
The Jets are now a perfect 5-0 this season without both Scheifele and Wheeler in the lineup.
Winnipeg swept the season series against the Habs after they also won the first meeting back at the start of March.
“They have skill so they get their chances to score,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey. “But I liked the way we played for the most part. Obviously, right now it’s just about finding ways to win games, and it’s a big four points for us.”
The Jets won both contests on the two-game trip and have gained five of a possible six points since an ugly loss to the Detroit Red Wings last week.
Not yet mathematically eliminated, the Jets continue to hang around in the playoff race. The victory moved the Jets five points back of the Dallas Stars for the final playoff spot with just eight games left. But the Stars still have two games in hand.
“We’re still fighting for every game,” said the head coach. “We’re in desperation mode right now and it’d be no different if we were in a playoff series and we were going back-to-back. That was the conversation that we had, and understanding that we have to win every game here.”
Ehlers had one assist to match his career-best seven-game point streak which he first had back in the 2016-2017 season.
Dylan Samberg had the first multi-point game of his young career, recording a pair of assists in appearing in his third consecutive game.
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There were no goals scored during a mostly uneventful opening period. Adam Lowry had the best chance to score but he was denied point-blank by the pad of a sprawling Sam Montembeault.
Just 29 seconds into the second frame, the home side got on the board first. Christian Dvorak cut through the Jets defence and whipped a shot on goal that was stopped by the glove of Connor Hellebuyck, but the rebound fluttered into the slot and was batted home by Joel Armia.
But just over a minute later, Barron finished off a great play in transition by ripping a shot over the glove of Montembeault for his first as a Jet and second of his career. Samberg started the play with a great outlet pass to Ehlers who skated the puck into the Habs zone before finding Barron in the slot.
At the four minute mark, that line struck again off a faceoff win in the Montreal zone. Samberg slid a pass to Barron who made a great move in the corner to free up space and fed Stastny in the slot for the go-ahead goal.
The Jets had numerous chances to pad the lead, but Montembeault made several big saves, robbing a number of Winnipeg shooters to keep it a one-goal game.
That proved critical just past the six-minute mark of the third when Jeff Petry’s point shot was deflected by Josh Anderson and past a helpless Hellebuyck to even the score.
Winnipeg regained the lead with just under nine minutes to go when Svechnikov snapped a 20-game scoring drought.
Pierre-Luc Dubois carried the puck into the Montreal zone, slid a pass to Kyle Connor who then hit Svechnikov streaking to the net. The pass was in his feet but Svechnikov somehow, in one deft motion, got it into a shooting position and wired it through Montembeault.
A last-ditch push to tie the game was unsuccessful for Montreal as Adam Lowry sealed the win with an empty-netter with 89 seconds remaining.
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Hellebuyck made 23 saves to collect the win, while Montembeault turned aside 31 shots in defeat.
The Jets are scheduled to host Seattle on Wednesday before heading back on the road, assuming the forecasted blizzard does not throw a wrench into the schedule. Pregame show will begin on 680 CJOB at 5:30 pm, with the puck dropping shortly after 7:30 p.m.
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