It was, by all accounts, a boring hockey game until Blake Wheeler and Evander Kane scored 57 seconds apart in the third period to come from behind and defeat the streaking Boston Bruins 3-1 last night at the MTS Centre. It was the third straight home win for the Jets and perhaps the dawning of a playoff birth as they may have shown what character will be needed.
The win, their first this season after trailing after two periods, put the Jets back into first place in the South-East as Carolina had slipped back into a tie with Winnipeg on Monday with a shootout loss to the New York Rangers. The Jets now rule the South-East division with 34 points and hang on to the third overall seed in the Eastern Conference.
Evander Kane scored the winner from a rebound off of a lofting Grant Clitsome shot from the blue line and Wheeler ended things with his second goal into an empty net. The Jets have yet to produce a hat-trick this season. Going back to their inaugural season last year, no player has yet registered three goals in one game as a member of the Winnipeg Jets since their re-location from Atlanta.
Ondrej Pavelec was once again almost impenetrable as he near single-handedly stole this game from the Bruins. He is now 5-1-1 in his last seven starts. The Jets showed a little of last year's streak-killer squad with the win as the Bruins had won 11 of their last 15 games coming into last night's contest.