Coming off one of their worst performances of the season, the Winnipeg Jets were hoping for a strong, bounce-back effort against the worst team in the Eastern Conference Thursday night.
Instead, they fell apart defensively in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers to further dent their faint playoff hopes.
Things went wrong early for the Jets as Gabriel Vilardi was called for a questionable hooking penalty just 59 seconds into the game.
It took New York all of nine seconds to capitalize as Adam Fox beat Connor Hellebuyck from the point thanks in part to a drive-by screen from Gabriel Perreault.
A couple minutes later, Isak Rosén sprung Jonathan Toews on a breakaway thanks to a long yet accurate stretch pass from his own end. Toews tried to sneak a shot blocker-side on Igor Shesterkin but the Rangers’ netminder stopped it with his right pad.
The Jets earned their first power play look of the night at the 11:18 mark of the opening frame but were not able to capitalize.
Not much else happened in a fairly low-event period with Winnipeg managing just six shots on goal to only three for New York.
Winnipeg drew even at the 2:21 mark of the second when Rosén deflected a Jacob Bryson point shot past Shesterkin for his first goal as a Jet.
The Rangers responded at the 7:36 mark when Alexis Lafrenière tipped a point shot through Hellebuyck.
New York picked up their second power play of the game just past the midway point of the second but the Jets had the better chances as Cole Koepke and Morgan Barron both came close to scoring shorthanded.
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Winnipeg got back on level ground with 2:11 left in the second thanks to a highlight-reel marker from Kyle Connor, not long after he was robbed by Shesterkin.
After New York cleared the puck and changed some of their players, the puck came back to Elias Salomonsson in the Winnipeg end. He sent it up to Mark Scheifele who carried it into the Rangers’ end before passing it cross-ice to Connor.
The U.S. Olympian then toe-dragged the puck through the skates of former Norris winner Adam Fox and faked out Shesterkin before depositing the puck into the net for his 29th of the season.
The score stayed tied 2-2 heading to the second intermission with Winnipeg outshooting New York 9-5 in the period.
Scheifele came within an inch or two of giving Winnipeg the lead in the opening minute of the third when Mika Zibanejad turned the puck over at the Jets’ blue line, springing Scheifele on a partial breakaway. He bore in fast on Shesterkin before firing a shot that beat the netminder but rang off the post and ricocheted into the corner.
That proved costly for the Jets because less than a minute later, the Rangers got the lead back.
New York won a faceoff in the Jets’ end, leading to Braden Schneider getting the puck at the point before sliding it over to Matthew Robertson. He sent a shot to the slot that was steered past Hellebuyck by Tye Kartye to make it 3-2 at the 1:15 mark.
It was the fifth time in Winnipeg’s last six games that they had allowed a goal in the first two minutes of the third period.
The lead didn’t last long, however, as Gabriel Vilardi pulled the Jets back level just 3:04 later, collecting a rebound in close and depositing it into the net for his 25th of the season.
The seesaw affair continued less than three minutes later when the Rangers picked up their fourth one-goal lead of the game.
Zibanejad carried the puck up the ice and into the Jets’ end as Dylan DeMelo blew a tire in the neutral zone. After several players got a touch on the puck in the Winnipeg end, Schneider sent a pass back-door that Perreault steered into the net to make it 4-3 at the 6:57 mark.
The Rangers grabbed their first two-goal lead of the night at the 11:08 mark. Adam Edstrom collected a loose puck along the boards in the Winnipeg end before leaving it for Conor Sheary. He dropped it to the corner for Vincent Trocheck as Edstrom circled into the slot. Trocheck passed it to Edstrom who took a shot that deflected off the stick of Bryson and past Hellebuyck to make it 5-3.
Josh Morrissey came close to making it a one-goal game when he his shot from the slot rang off the post with 4:23 to go.
With 2:15 on the clock, Hellebuyck went to the bench for an extra attacker and Fox nearly hit the empty net from his own end a minute later, missing just wide for an icing to keep Winnipeg’s faint hopes alive.
It turned out to be immaterial, however, when Noah Laba scored to ice the game with 50.8 to go.
The Rangers only managed to get 17 shots on net in the win while Winnipeg got 27 on Shesterkin.
The Jets will be in tough to get back into the win column when they host the league-leading Avalanche Saturday afternoon. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 1 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 3 p.m.
