Coach Paul Maurice does not think his Winnipeg Jets are desperate.
With a 4-1 loss at home on Thursday night to the Nashville Predators, the Jets are 21-23-3 and their playoff hopes are dimming as they remain at the bottom of the NHL Central Division and six points away from a post-season spot.
“I don’t think desperate hockey has any sense to it,” Maurice said. “Urgency? Listen, I’m not sure that they didn’t play as hard as they could, but we could play a little smarter and we could pass the puck better. I know that, but clearly we’re in a tough spot here now with the losses that are mounting here at home.”
Photo: AP
Ryan Johansen kept up his hot play since being traded with a goal and an assist. Johansen has four goals and nine points in seven games since his trade from Columbus on Jan. 6.
Craig Smith, James Neal and Calle Jarnkrok, with an empty-netter, also scored for the Predators.
Rookie Nikolaj Ehlers scored his ninth goal of the season for Winnipeg, who have dropped two straight to start a six-game homestand.
Photo: AP
Ehlers scored 4 minutes, 16 seconds into the first period after getting behind Nashville’s defense, picking up a long, breakaway pass from Joel Armia and flipping the puck past Pekka Rinne, who made 26 saves.
“It definitely hurts,” Ehlers said. “We played a pretty good game; a full 60 minutes. We had some good chances and weren’t able to execute.”
“It was a great team win, a good way to start off what is going to be a tough road trip and a tough few games coming up,” Neal said. “A team that’s right behind us in the standings, so it was a huge win.”
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 for the Jets.
Nashville capitalized on a kneeing penalty to Jets winger Anthony Peluso to tie it 1-1 16 minutes, 39 seconds into the first.
Johansen scored his ninth goal of the season on a power play when he jammed the puck in on the short side from behind the goal line.
Nashville took a 2-1 lead in the second period when Smith’s shot from inside the faceoff circle went high past a partly screened Hellebuyck for his 10th goal at 5 minutes, 4 seconds.
Winnipeg had an 18-17 edge in shots on goal heading into the third.
Neal scored his 17th goal at 18 minutes, 8 seconds when Johansen won the faceoff and sent the puck to him out in front. Jarnkrok added the empty-netter 25 seconds later.
“If we’re a good enough team to outshoot them 11-2 even strength in the second period, then you’ve got to be a good enough team to win the game,” Maurice said.
In Tampa, Florida, Nikita Kucherov broke a second-period tie with his 20th goal as the streaking Tampa Bay Lightning ended Chicago’s franchise-record 12-game winning run with a 2-1 win victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The win was the seventh straight for the Lightning — one away from a team record — and gave the defending Eastern Conference champions a split of the season series with the Blackhawks, who won last year’s Stanley Cup final against Tampa Bay in six games.
Ben Bishop had 17 saves as the Blackhawks were held to a season-low 18 shots. Corey Crawford stopped 31 shots to keep the Blackhawks in the game, but it was not enough to extend a career-best nine-game winning streak for the Chicago goaltender.
Anton Stralman scored in the first period, while Victor Hedman had two assists for the Lightning. Artem Anisimov scored Chicago’s lone goal in the opening minute of the game.
In other games, it was:
‧ Wild 3, Kings 0
‧ Canucks 4, Bruins 2
‧ Devils 6, Senators 3
‧ Penguins 4, Flyers 3
‧ Flames 4, Blue Jackets 2
‧ Hurricanes 1, Maple Leafs 0, OT
‧ Stars 3, Oilers 1
‧ Sharks 3, Coyotes 2
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier