Laurent Brossoit made 24 saves for the shutout and the Winnipeg Jets made a Central Division statement Thursday with a 3-0 blanking of the Western Conference leading Dallas Stars on the road.
Winnipeg won their fifth straight game to move into a tie for second place in the division with the Colorado Avalanche with each team having three games left to play in the regular season.
The Jets have been searching to find their form for what seems like forever and finally put it all together for one of their best performances since beating the New York Rangers three weeks ago.
“That’s the way we want to play the game,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. “That team is a great hockey team over there, obviously. We knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game out there on every shift and we did. That’s the way we want to play.”
The Stars had won 10 of their last 11 games and had beaten the Jets in all three of their previous meetings this season.
But on this night the Jets looked more like the team we saw back in December and January.
“It looked a lot like that stretch we had of a lot of games with not a lot of goals against,” said forward Nikolaj Ehlers. “But it’s not just the goals against, it’s seeing how everybody is working together out there. And that’s what we need, so that’s exciting.
“For us to go out and play the way that we did tonight against a great team like that, shows what we can do if we play the right way.”
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Brossoit was fantastic again in the Jets’ net and recorded his third shutout in just his past six starts. The Jets held the Stars to just 24 shots on goal, including just seven in the third period.
“We know that they’re dangerous off the rush and seemed like we took that away for the most part,” said Brossoit. “In the ‘D’ zone we didn’t give them much and any rebounds I gave up, our guys were first to the puck and it was consistent in all 60 (minutes).”
Brossoit has only allowed more than three goals in a game twice in 21 starts this season.
“Timely saves when we needed them,” said Bowness. “We didn’t give up a lot of grade A’s tonight, but when we did, he was there. He’s been so good for us this year. He’s been outstanding.”
Ehlers opened the scoring with 5:07 remaining in the first period, depositing a rebound from the slot past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger.
The Dane’s 24th goal this season was also the 200th of his NHL career.
Winnipeg was able to double its lead 9:20 into the second period. Dylan Samberg’s point shot deflected off a Stars’ stick, then hit David Gustafsson before it trickled into the back of the net. The goal was Gustafsson’s 3rd of the season and first in 29 games.
The best chance for Dallas to score in the first two periods came with just under a minute remaining in the second.
Stars defenceman Thomas Harley’s deflected shot from the point skipped in and went off the right post, bouncing out and directly under Brossoit.
The third period featured a lot of offensive zone pressure for Dallas, but Brossoit stood tall.
Then with the Stars goalie pulled late, Mark Scheifele put an exclamation mark on this game with an empty net goal. It was just the second Jets shot on goal in the period.
Cole Perfetti was scratched for Gustafsson, while Adam Lowry appeared in his 700th career NHL game.
The Jets and Avalanche are tied for second in the Central with 104 points each, but Winnipeg holds the tiebreaker with more regulation wins.
And it sets up a Winnipeg-Colorado showdown Saturday afternoon in Denver, the Jets final road game of the regular season.
The pregame show begins at 1 p.m. on 680 CJOB, with puck drop just after 3 p.m.
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