Winnipeg Jets’ losing streak hits five games with 4-1 loss to Vegas

For the tenth time in their last 11 meetings with the Vegas Golden Knights, the Winnipeg Jets came up on the wrong side of the ledger Thursday night, controlling much of the game but falling 4-1 for their fifth straight loss.

Winnipeg earned the game’s power play chance 6:37 into a physical first period but as has so often been the case since Gabriel Vilardi got hurt, the Jets came up empty and that would prove costly later in the first when the visitors would open the scoring.

After the Jets turned the puck over at their own blueline, Pavel Dorofeyev missed the net but William Karlsson tracked down the rebound, got it back to Dorofeyev and this time he made no mistake, sniping one top-shelf to make it 1-0 with 4:04 to go in the first.

Vegas would earn their first power play look not long after but Winnipeg managed to kill it off.

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The Golden Knights carried their lead and a 14-10 advantage in shots on goal into the middle frame but the Jets controlled the bulk of the second, tying the game 3:31 into the period.

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Keegan Kolesar had the puck in his own end and was ready to skate up the ice before he tripped over Josh Morrissey’s stick without a penalty being called. He fell and the puck slid to the Jets at the blue line. Seconds later, Nikolaj Ehlers sent a shot on goal that was tipped en route by Sean Monahan and floated over the shoulder of Logan Thompson.

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A big reason why Winnipeg carried play in the second was the fact that they had three power play looks in the period. While they did not score on them, they had the puck in the Golden Knights’ end most of the time, an improvement on what they had been doing with the man advantage of late but still, three opportunities by the wayside as the teams entered the third tied at one.

Winnipeg outshot Vegas 15-6 in the second and stayed in charge for most of the third but the game changed with 8:37 to go.

Nicolas Hague caught Vladislav Namestnikov in the head as the Jets forward was reaching for the puck, sending him to the ice clutching his head. Mark Scheifele immediately rushed in to fight Hague and was given a two-minute instigator penalty and a ten-minute misconduct along with a fighting major.

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Hague was initially going to be given a major penalty for the hit to the head but it was downgraded to a minor, so the teams played five-on-five and the Jets had to play the rest of the game without their number one centre.

The Jets still had their chances but on what seemed to be a fairly innocuous rush up the ice, the Golden Knights went ahead with 5:29 remaining. Anthony Mantha took the puck across the Jets’ blue line and chipped it to the slot where Ivan Barbashev took a whack at it with the backhand and sent it high over the right shoulder of Hellebuyck.

Winnipeg pulled the goalie with over two minutes left but they couldn’t mount a rally before Barbashev sealed the win with an empty netter. Jack Eichel added another empty net goal for good measure to make it a 4-1 final.

Thompson was great in net for Vegas, turning aside 39 of 40 shots while Hellebuyck made 23 saves in defeat.

Winnipeg’s next chance to get back in the win column comes Saturday night when they host the Senators. Puck drop is 6 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting at 4 p.m.

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