The Winnipeg Jets will look to extend their points streak to eight games when they visit the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
Winnipeg is 6-0-1 in their past seven following a 5-1 win over the visiting Dallas Stars earlier this week. The stingy Jets have allowed the fewest goals (28) in the NHL.
“Hopefully we continue to be one of the top defensive teams. The last couple of games at home, it’s certainly looked a lot better,” said forward Adam Lowry. “The other team isn’t getting a lot of chances that previously we gave up quite a few.”
The Jets limited the Stars to 22 shots on goal, 21 of which were stopped by Connor Hellebuyck.
Mark Scheifele scored two goals against Dallas, Mason Appleton had a goal and two assists and Kyle Connor had three assists.
“We’re not sitting back on our heels. We’re playing on our toes, we’re making it hard on teams to make plays and make continuous passes,” Scheifele said. “That comes with playing fast and having good sticks and trusting your teammates. I think we’ve done a really good job with that.”
Winnipeg’s Pierre-Luc Dubois enters Saturday with a three-game goal streak and five points over that span.
Calgary returns home looking to end a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2). The Flames went 0-2-1 on a three-game road trip in which they were outscored by a total of four goals over three close games.
Boston edged Calgary 3-1 on Thursday despite being outshot 32-28.
“On winning or losing streaks, what are the two things that always happen?” Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. “The goaltender steals a game, or somebody scores a big goal. … The two things we for sure have to get better at as a team is save percentage and shooting percentage.”
Noah Hanifin scored against Boston, and Dan Vladar made 25 saves.
The Flames’ seven-game losing streak is tied for the sixth-longest in their history; the record is 11, set in 1985-86.
Trailing 2-1 after two periods, the Flames outshot the Bruins 11-6 in the final frame — but surrendered an empty-net goal to David Pastrnak at 19:27 to seal it.
“I think our effort is there,” forward Andrew Mangiapane said. “Puck management is a big one for us lately. We’ve just got to clean up those little areas and we’ll get out of this. We’ve just got to stick with it and keep building off the positives and eliminating the mistakes.”
And put the puck in the net. The Flames are tied for 21st in the NHL with 2.92 goals per game.
Streaking Winnipeg is looking past the Flames’ record of late.
“The coaches laid out a stat for us about their starts and how much they’re outshooting teams in the first 10 minutes,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “We have to be ready to go and we know they’re going to come out hard.”
Hellebuyck is 12-4-1 with a 1.87 goals-against average (GAA) and .936 save percentage in 19 games against the Flames. Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom is 5-14-2 with a 3.27 GAA and .890 save percentage in 21 games versus the Jets.
–Field Level Media
