With 25% of the NHL's regular season schedule remaining, a battle between the Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken is booked for Tuesday night in PE. If you haven't watched the match, check out how it unfolded.
News before puck drop indicated that neither Vilardi nor Schmidt were healthy enough to play, so the Jets added the tall Stanley to the core of their defense heading into the contest. Winnipeg started playing very well and spent their time cycling Seattle's zone line by line. That pressure led to quality plays from Daccord for the Kraken, including Stanley's slap shot that hit the post and Lowry's shot after intercepting a pass in the offensive zone. But it was the visitors who got on the scoreboard first when a 3-on-2 rush ended with a one-timer from the high slot. Hellebuyck appeared to have good positioning, but the puck slipped between his legs, giving Seattle the lead just before the midway point of the period. This increased the Kraken's pace and they began to spend time on the Jets side, forcing Bucky to make several nice glove saves. Eventually Winnipeg found its feet again and began circling the opponent's zone again, looking for scoring opportunities. The Monahan-Lowry trio is particularly adept at generating offense in the opening frame, and MoneyPuck's stats and charts show that the Jets had a controlled play in the opening period despite being in a 1-0 hole. It shows what it shows.
1st Period MoneyPuck Statistics: Score: 1 to 0 Kraken Shooting, Jets Shooting 14-7, Jets Winning 65%, Expected Goals – All Situations (0.94-0.30 WPG), and 5-on-5 (0.94-0.30 WPG)
In my eyes, Winnipeg started to push a little too hard on goal in the second period, giving Seattle multiple opportunities to counterattack. On the first of these chances, the Kraken escaped the end with Hellebuyck, but Tender timed his pokecheck well and denied the opportunity. The Jets applied more pressure, giving Lowry another bright scoring chance, but Seattle stormed back, going 2-on-2 again. A quick summary of Pionk's game: The defender gave up the puck at the blue line to allow a rush, but returned to position and ended the danger with a well-placed poke check. This allowed the Jets' top line to get up on the ice, and as soon as Namestnikov gained the zone, he handed the puck to Scheifele, who was skating down his right wing. Winnipeg's top center sent a beautiful cross-ice pass to a wide-open Connor in the left faceoff circle, giving the sniper a chance to take a shot that beat Daccord's glove. Officials ended up handing the puck to the Winnipeg bench as Mark Scheifele's dish marked the 700th point of his NHL career. Seattle reacted well to the tied game, relying on some big saves from Hellebuyck to keep the game stalemate and really began to corner the Jets. When Monaghan stumbled in the neutral zone, the referees threw Winnipeg a potential lifeline and a chance to change the course of the game. The man advantage started with puck control but was unable to penetrate the Kraken defense. To make matters worse, the team allowed a brilliant short breakaway from McCann, who fired a long slot shot over Bucky's glove to give the visitors another lead. In the final two minutes, Winnipeg initially struggled to gain any offensive zone, but then the Lowry unit broke through, allowing Appleton to make a nice pass to the big center in the slot. The Jets captain finally paid off for taking so many chances, tying the game with nine seconds left. Looking at Money Pack's shot chart from the second onwards, our team did a pretty good job of limiting dangerous chances, but the game stalled towards the final frame.
MoneyPuck stats after 2 periods: Score: 2 vs 2 Tie, Jets shooting 24-17, Jets winning 63%, Expected Goals – All Situations (1.54-0.97 WPG) and 5-on-5 (1.33-0.87 WPG)
Winnipeg started third as fans expected, and when Appleton ran up the right side with the puck, he was able to find Niederreiter running toward the net. Once again, Apples made a great pass that hit the Swiss winger in blue paint, giving the Jets a 3-2 lead just 1:17 into the period. But Seattle stubbornly refused to give up, and on the next shift Tatar was able to steal the point with a butterfly Bucky shot. Both teams then spent the next 15 minutes in a mostly low-risk battle, but Hellebuyck was forced to make some big stops to prevent the Kraken from taking a further lead. As the end of the frame neared, Stanley attempted to thwart a Seattle player's attempt to receive a pass by tying up his stick, but the contact shattered a twig and sent the big defender flying into the sin box. The Kraken were able to set up early on the first PP of the game, but were kept well on the perimeter by their defenders. A great block on Appleton's one-timer attempt gave fans hope that the team could escape with a tie, but a last-second cross-ice pass and wrister resulted in the puck dripping between Hellebuyck's arm and body. fell. Bowness pulled Bucky with just over two minutes left, and Winnipeg had several chances to tie the game, but Seattle's defense consistently blocked the shots. With less than 30 seconds left, the referees awarded the Jets another PP, allowing his team to take a 6-on-4 advantage. They won a pivotal draw and also had a cross-ice pass to an uncovered player, but when Pionk bobbled the pass and was able to take the shot, it was just a blocked shot attempt. MoneyPuck seems to agree with my old eyes. The Jets really deserved to win this game, but the bounce just didn't go their way.
MoneyPuck stats after 3rd period: 71% deserved Jets win, Expected Goals – All Situations (2.56-1.43 WPG) and 5-on-5 (2.37-1.33 WPG)
Final score: seattle kraken Four winnipeg jets 3
shot: winnipeg jets 32 seattle kraken twenty four
Game observations:
- Well, I think everyone has a day off once in a while.Since then conor hellebike He gives his team quality starts over 70% of the time, so I think you can forgive him for the game where he allowed a couple questionable goals last night. It wasn't a game he would include in his Vezina Trophy application, since only the Kraken's third marker came from within 10 feet of the net. For those who are stat-savvy, Hellebuyck posted an above-average goals-against average of 2.57 goals against Seattle.
- of Adam Lowry, Nino Neiderreiter& mason appleton The trio were excellent, scoring 93.9% of their expected goals in another dominant performance. Add in some goals scored with Appleton's great setups, and you can't complain about the third line's performance.
- The first line(Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Vladislav Namestnikov) also won the expected goal battle (57.1%), with KFC adding an even number of goals. 2nd line (Sean Monaghan, Nikolaj Ehlers, Alex Iafallo) also controlled most of the play (56.2% xG), but the fourth line was once again terrible (9.5% xG).
- All three defensive pairs had positive expected goals percentages at even strength. brenden dillon & Neil Pionk The duo took the lead with 74.9%.
A busy March for the Winnipeg Jets, with the team taking a few days off to regroup and potentially allowing injured and down players to return to full health. be.
Next Game: Winnipeg Jets @ Seattle Kraken – Friday, March 8, 9pm Central
Rematch in Seattle on Friday night…hope for a better result. This game happens to coincide with the NHL trade deadline, so Winnipeg could end up acquiring a new player or two from Washington State.
Looking for an easy way to support Arctic Ice Hockey? Use our affiliate links when purchasing hockey gear this holiday season.
