Try as they might, the Winnipeg Jets just couldn’t find a way to get the job done on Sunday afternoon.
Taking on the Buffalo Sabres in the first test of a four-game homestand, Winnipeg gave up five goals and only managed three despite outshooting the visitors 36-17.
The Jets fell behind and just couldn’t seem to catch up, tailing by multiple goals on multiple occasions in the 5-3 loss.
Winnipeg dropped to 48-19-4 on the season and will now face the league-best Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
JJ Peterka opened the scoring 9:15 into the first period, beating Comrie cleanly on the glove side.
Nino Niederreiter suffered a heavy check into the boards from Connor Clifton late in the period, to which he skated over to the Jets’ bench rather wobbly. But he returned for the start of the second, and his presence was felt almost immediately.
With none other than Clifton in the box a few minutes later, Niederreiter found a goal of his own. After going 15 games without a goal, the veteran forward bounced a net-front puck off the foot of a Sabres’ defenceman, knotting things at ones.
“You obviously never want to see one of your teammates take a hit and get called into protocol,” Brandon Tanev said of Niederreiter. “But he took all the right steps and did all the right things to get back and put on the ice and he got rewarded by playing the right way. That’s as teammate, taking a hit to make a play to get the puck in and do a job and that’s ultimately how we need to keep playing and it was great to see him get rewarded.”
The Jets piled on the offence as the middle stanza wore on, to no avail.
Leading 24-7 on the shot chart, 46-18 in shot attempts and 8-0 in high-danger scoring chances through 40 minutes of play, it was Buffalo that got the 2-1 marker late in the second period.
Rasmus Dahlin hammered home a long-range one-timer from the point with 1:14 to play, putting the visitors ahead by one entering the third period.
But with Mark Scheifele in the box for tripping, Souris’ Tyson Kozak produced a power play goal, giving the Sabres a two-goal lead with just over a half period to play.
Just 28 seconds later Colin Miller took things into his own hands, carrying the puck the length of the ice and roofing it past Reimer, to bring Winnipeg back to just one goal from the Sabres with 12 minutes to play.
Reimer made up for the Miller goal with a sensational desperation stop on Scheifele on a late-game power play. The puck went the other way up-ice, with Alex Tuch potting a breakaway finisher past Comrie with 6:39 to play and 41 seconds left in the penalty.
Nik Ehlers hit the post after deking Reimer out of position, but the puck had other ideas and skirted into the corner, rather than into the gaping net.
Ehlers made things right with 3:27 to play, as he wiring his 23rd goal of the year past a beleaguered Reimer on a screamer from down the left wing.
Comrie found his way to the bench for the last three minutes but Winnipeg was unable to get another into the net. Ryan McLeod potted a long-range empty-net goal, sealing it for Buffalo.
“We definitely had our chances,” Miller said. “Their goalie played well. They did a good job of clogging up the neutral zone and their own end. But, just one of those nights, a little bit snake-bitten. They played well defensively, so we’ll look at it and move on.”
Comrie turned aside 12 of the 16 pucks he faced, while Reimer made 33 saves on the 36 shots taken by Winnipeg.
Next up for Winnipeg is the second leg of the four-game homestand. And it will be biggest test of the year for the Jets, with the No. 1 seed Washington Capitals visiting Canada Life Centre for a battle of first place teams. Winnipeg will finish off the homestand with games against New Jersey and Vancouver.
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