(SportsNetwork.com) – The Winnipeg Jets opened November on a three-game
winning streak and can close the month the same way when they visit the Boston
Bruins for Friday’s battle at TD Garden.
The Jets are 8-4-2 in November after going 4-5-1 in the opening month of the
season. After this evening’s game in Beantown, Winnipeg will be off until
hosting Edmonton on Wednesday.
Winnipeg is coming off consecutive victories in Columbus and Buffalo and can
complete a perfect three-game road trip tonight. The Jets own a solid 8-4-2
record as the visiting team this season compared to a 4-5-1 mark at home.
Picking up another road victory tonight could prove difficult, however, as the
Bruins have won 12 straight at home in this series. The last time Boston lost
at home in this matchup was in a 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on March
31, 2007.
The Jets recorded a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets on Tuesday and posted a 2-1
decision the following night in Buffalo. Bryan Little scored in a third
straight game to help Winnipeg down the Sabres, while Ondrej Pavelec needed to
make only 19 saves for the win.
Little has three goals and an assist over his last three games and he opened
the scoring with a power-play marker just 3:41 into Wednesday’s game versus
the Sabres. Michael Frolik provided the game-winner for Winnipeg, notching a
short-handed goal late in the second period.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game by any standards, but we had a couple huge
penalty kills, the power play came through again,” said Little. “It was ugly,
but we’ll take it.”
The Jets played Wednesday’s game without forward Mathieu Perreault, who sat
out with an upper-body injury suffered in the previous tilt against the Blue
Jackets. He is questionable for tonight’s game. Defenseman Tobias Enstrom has
missed the last two tests with a lower-body ailment and also is questionable
for tonight.
Pavelec is expected to start in net and is 5-7-2 with a 3.02 goals against
average in 16 career games against the Bruins.
Boston is hoping to avoid its first three-game losing streak since Oct. 9-13
when it takes the ice for the finale of a three-game homestand.
The Bruins were shut out 2-0 by Montreal to begin the residency last Saturday,
but then picked up a point in Monday’s overtime loss against Pittsburgh.
Evgeni Malkin scored 32 seconds into OT to lift the Penguins to the 3-2
victory. The Russian star skated to the top of the right circle and one-timed
a cross-ice feed from Sidney Crosby through the pads of Tuukka Rask for his
second goal of the game.
Milan Lucic and Joe Morrow scored both goals for Boston, tallying 28 seconds
apart in the second period. Rask stopped 30 shots in defeat.
The Bruins also had two goals waved off in Monday’s loss. Patrice Bergeron
knocked a puck into the net with a high stick in the first period and Carl
Soderberg was ruled to have directed the disc in with his glove in the second.
“We’re working hard to score goals and yet you get those taken away. We had a
couple tough calls on us tonight,” said Boston head coach Claude Julien.
Boston is 8-5-1 as the home team this season. Next up for the Bruins is a
four-game road trip, which begins Monday in Anaheim.
The Bruins have won three of the past five meetings against the Jets and Rask
is 8-4-0 with a 1.98 GAA in 12 career outings against the Atlanta/Winnipeg
franchise.
Boston’s Chris Kelly could return today after missing the last two games with
an undisclosed injury, but fellow forward David Krejci could be out again
tonight. Krejci has missed three straight and nine of Boston’s last 11 games
with an unspecified lower-body injury.
