Losing streak hits five games as Winnipeg Jets fall flat in Philly 4-1

The Winnipeg Jets are 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 Flyers wasted little time getting on the board, opening the scoring 3:37 into the game.

Ryan Poehling took a cross-ice pass as he skated into the Winnipeg zone. Neal Pionk tried to get in his way but Poehling was able to send a pass to the front of the net where Tyson 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.

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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 Travis Konecny found it and buried it to make it 2-0 just over 14 minutes into the first.

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Roughly four minutes later, Morgan 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.

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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 Kyle Connor tucked one around Samuel Ersson with 5:12 to go, Winnipeg’s first goal in roughly 115 minutes of game action that ensured they wouldn’t be shutout in consecutive games for the first time since relocating from Atlanta.

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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.