Recap: Winnipeg Jets @ Ottawa Senators
After picking up their 10th win in a row, the Winnipeg Jets were looking to take advantage of an Ottawa Senators franchise stuck in the midst of a 4 game skid. Lets find out how things went….
GAME RECAP
The Jets started the game off slowly, other than defenseman Logan Stanley quickly fulfilling SaskatoonJet’s pre-game prediction by dropping his gloves after a questionable hit attempt on Mark Scheifele. Ottawa ended up with a powerplay out of that exchange and they used that to propel them to an early 6-1 lead on the shot counter. Another Senator player threw another questionable hit, this time on Mason Appleton, and that led to captain Adam Lowry teaching him a quick lesson the hard way (he didn’t return to the game). Shortly after, the Sens failed to clear their own zone, allowing Nikolaj Ehlers the chance to keep the puck in. The Dane quickly spotted Cole Perfetti right beside Ottawa’s goalie and sent a quick wrister that #91 deflected by Linus Ullmark to open the scoring on Winnipeg’s 2nd shot of the game. WPG 1-0. The Jets have an incredible 24-3-2 record when scoring first this season, so the Senators were already behind the 8 ball. Despite Ottawa doing a good job of creating offense in the opening frame, it was Winnipeg that struck next when Nino Niederreiter drove hard to the Sen’s net. While the Swiss forward didn’t score, the puck was sitting in the crease for Appleton to poke into the wide open net. WPG 2-0. The Senators tested Connor Hellebuyck a couple more times before the period ended, out-chancing the Jets in the frame (1.65 to 0.91 xG for OTT).
After Winnipeg failed to capitalize on an early powerplay in the 2nd, the 4th line of Alex Iafallo, David Gustafsson, & Rasmus Kupari had back-to-back offensive zone shifts to help tilt the momentum for the Jets. While Gus probably should have added to the True Northers’ lead, it ended up being the top trio that got it done. A strong cycle shift saw Gabe Vilardi set up Dylan DeMelo for a 1 timer before he recovered the rebound behind the net and brought the puck back out front. A quick pass off to Kyle Connor allowed the sniper to step in before ending a rare goalless streak. WPG 3-0. The Winnipeg Jets may have been caught congratulating themselves, as a misread on the next shift by Ehlers allowed the Senator’s Thomas Chabot to walk in and fire a shot over Hellebuyck’s glove to end the shutout bid. WPG 3-1. The late part of the middle frame should have seen the Jets really pull away, but somehow their vaunted powerplay unit failed to connect over 4 straight minutes of extra-attacker time (including the first 2 mins being 5 on 3). Ottawa gained some energy with the huge penalty kill and that resulted in Hellebuyck having to make at least one more big save before the horn sounded.
Ah the 3rd period…..I know stuff happened. Most of it wasn’t very exciting and the comments on both AIH and JHF totally dried up as us fans tried to stay awake. I do recall Scheifele almost scoring on a deflection and Connor getting denied on a breakaway. In the end, the scoring was completed when Connor & Scheifele combined to set up the franchise’s all-time leading goal scorer for an empty netter.
FINAL SCORE: WINNIPEG 4 OTTAWA 1
FINAL STATS
Shots: 39-25 WPG / Hits: 29-19 OTT / Face-Offs: 60.0% OTT / x Goals: 5.32 WPG – 2.36 OTT /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 79.3% WPG / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 11 to 11 tie
SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
***
If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. Ottawa Senators – Wednesday February 26 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ Ottawa Senators, 2025-02-26
BOJA’s Observations:
Yet another stellar performance by Connor Hellebuyck. Got caught a little deep in the net on the sole goal against, but otherwise was down-right impressive. 1.36 Goals Saved Above Expected and a .960 save percentage. Start etching his name in the Vezina already.
The fourth line was really good tonight, especially David Gustafsson & Alex Iafallo. Gus continued his recent strong play and led Winnipeg with .946 expected goals. And Iafallo was third on the Jets with .799. Nice play to get from the bottom six.
Mark Scheifele had one of his better games, getting multiple chances on net from high danger areas (.837 xG) and his 33rd goal of the year into an empty net. Really like to see #55 getting into the dirty areas and some impressive hand-eye with a couple deflections that came close. The entire top line was solid, earning 78.5% of the expected goals.
All three defensive pairings were on the ice for a Winnipeg goal and only the top duo of Josh Morrissey & Dylan DeMelo allowed one by Ottawa. After a nightmare game against the Sharks, the Logan Stanley & Colin Miller bounced back with a strong performance (71.4% xG%).
Down in the minors, the Manitoba Moose beat the Belleville Senators in overtime 3-2 and a couple prospects were involved. Brad Lambert picked up his 24th point of the season when he scored a PP goal, while the rookie Elias Salomonsson had a helper on all of the Moose’s goals. Both players are now averaging 0.60 points per game this year on the low scoring Manitoba team. Goalie Thomas Milic was excellent, stopping 32 of 34 shots for a .941 save percentage. The AHL team possibly has figured things out finally, as they have picked up wins in 6 of their last 9 contests.
Well, after extending their franchise record winning streak to 11 games, the Winnipeg Jets will have no rest as they quickly travel to Tennessee for their next challenge.
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets @ Nashville Predators – Thursday, February 27th @ 7:00 pm CST...
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