Jets fly past Hurricanes, 3-1

The Carolina Hurricanes saw their points streak come to an end north of the border on Tuesday night, falling 3-1 to the Winnipeg Jets in a game marred by errors on the side of the red and black.

The ‘Canes found themselves the victim of mistakes and poor defense all night, totaling up five penalties, three of which coming in the second period. Luckily, none of the penalties turned into points, as the PK unit denied the Jets on all five opportunities.

Shots were also close, but favored Winnipeg 26-22. Takeaways also favored the Jets decisively, 11-3, as a further testament of Carolina’s sloppy defensive play.

The game was also very physical, with nearly 50 total hits including one that saw Brad Malone be helped off the ice midway through the first period. Malone would return later in the game.

Carolina also got some bodies back tonight. Jeff Skinner made his first appearance of the young season and Andrej Sekera returned after a nasty bump he took last week.

Sekera totaled up two hits and three blocks in his return while Skinner had a team-high five shots on the night.

Scoring

Winnipeg got off to an early lead early on, in fact, within the first two minutes of the game. Andrew Laad found himself close to the net and took a shot that deflected off Anton Khudboin and went in. It was waved off at first, but then ruled a goal after a replay review.

The Jets struck again not even a minute later, as a slap shot from Grant Clintsome was tipped in by Adam Lowry, giving the home team a 2-0 lead.

Carolina responded by halving the lead a few minutes later on some nice passing with a man-advantage. Jiri Tlusty found the back of the net for the fourth time this season, scoring on a rebound shot after Riley Nash just was denied by Ondrej Pavelec.

Carolina had chances to come back, but Winnipeg seemed to put the game out of reach late in the second period. Dustin Byfuglien broke free after the puck was bobbled by Justin Faulk and scored on Khudobin in the final goal of the game.

The Hurricanes will look for their first win on Thursday night, as the head to Calgary to face the Flames at 9 p.m.