After falling to the Kraken at home Tuesday, members of the Winnipeg Jets admitted that they needed to tighten up defensively.
They did that in spades in the rematch in Seattle, shutting down the Kraken in a 3-0 win for their 40th victory of the season.
Neither side was able to generate much in a first period filled with stoppages as Winnipeg carried a 9-8 edge in shots on goal into the second period.
The shot clock remained unchanged for the first 6:45 of the second as both teams struggled to hit the net.
Eventually, Winnipeg managed to steer nine shots to Seattle’s four in the second period but the game remained deadlocked at zero heading to the third.
Jets fans who didn’t drift off during a sleepy first forty minutes were finally rewarded at the 7:15 mark of the third. After Josh Morrissey made a great play at the point to keep the puck in, Vladislav Namestnikov fed Mark Scheifele down low and he walked in front of the net before sliding it through the legs of Joey Daccord to open the scoring.
A little over a minute later, Seattle got their best chance of the night when Andre Burakovsky was sprung on a breakaway. As he shot the puck, his stick broke and Scheifele tripped him, sending the Seattle forward careening into Laurent Brossoit in net and putting the Kraken on the power play.
Scheifele was hurt on the play as Burakovsky’s skate nicked him after the trip, sending him to the locker room for repairs but he did return before the end of the game. His teammates killed off his minor tripping penalty which turned out to be the only penalty of the night.
The Jets doubled their lead at the 11:28 mark when Adam Lowry banged home a rebound for his 10th of the season and second in as many games after going 21 straight without a goal.
The Kraken mustered very little in terms of a comeback charge before Nikolaj Ehlers scored into an empty net with 50 seconds left.
Brossoit only had to make 17 saves to earn his fourth career shutout and first since Feb. 8, 2022 when he was a member of the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Jets will be right back in action Saturday night in Vancouver, trying to improve to 7-0 on the second leg of back-to-backs this season.
