WINNIPEG – Ondrej Pavelec went nearly a full calendar year without recording a shutout but he finally posted a goose egg on Tuesday in a 2-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks at MTS Centre. Pavelec stopped all 28 shots he faced for his first shutout since April 9, 2015.
“Happy for a shutout. Happy for a win.” Pavelec said. “We played a good game. We throw a lot of pucks to the net. We had a lot of action around the net and it was a good game.”
The Jets ended a three game losing streak. They pelted Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom with a season high 49 shots but Adam Lowry was the only player to beat him. Mark Scheifele scored into the empty net in the final minute.
The Jets won all three meetings with the Canucks this season outscoring them by an 11-3 margin. The Canucks have now lost five games in a row and have gone 11 straight periods without scoring a goal.
Both teams are riddled with injuries and both teams are in similar situations, already out of the playoff race.
“We’ve got some guys out. We know where we are in the standings.” said head coach Paul Maurice.
“So we had to do certain things to be a good hockey team tonight. We did those. We were good. To say that if we just play our game it’s going to look like that every night, that’s not realistic. They’ve got half a hockey team out and like the meat of the team other than the Sedins are out of the lineup and you saw that.”
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The Jets finished the game 0-for-3 on the powerplay but they had success on the penalty kill as the Canucks went 0-for-2 with the man advantage.
“I think they are in a similar situation as we are when you look at the players that are missing from their roster.” said Lowry. “There’s no easy games in the NHL. I think when we came in we wanted to build off that Anaheim game. I thought for the most part that was a real strong effort. We’re continuing to build for the future and continuing to try and improve every day.”
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The Jets with their new look line combinations had a little extra hop in their step in the early going. Scheifele skated in on the breakaway but Markstrom made a sharp glove save.
With under eight minutes to go in period number one, Scheifele handed it right to Alexandre Grenier who had a clear lane to the net. But his stick broke and Pavelec easily turned the shot aside.
The shots were 13-10 for the Jets in the opening 20 minutes.
Nic Petan played on the top line alongside Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, and early in period two Petan ripped a backhand off the goal post. But the game remained scoreless.
With less than five minutes to go in the middle period Brendan Gaunce skated in on a partial break with Dustin Byfuglien hot on his heals, but Pavelec made the save to keep it tied.
Early in the final frame there was a scramble for the loose puck and Adam Lowry tucked it in on the wraparound. It was Lowry’s sixth goal of the season. The Canucks used a coaches challenge to argue goalie interference but their appeal was denied. Matt Halischuk and Chris Thorburn drew the assists.
With under a minute to play in regulation, Wheeler had an opportunity to fire it into the empty net but patiently awaited for Scheifele to get open. Wheeler sent the pass in front and Scheifele buried the shot into the empty net for his 24th goal of the season.
“Both teams are kinda at the bottom a little bit.” Petan said. “We just wanted to have a good work ethic going in and I thought we played a full 60 (minutes).
The Jets have Wednesday off before they close out the four game homestand on Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
WATCH: The Jets react following a 2-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks
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