Coyotes at Jets
Dustin Byfuglien, Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler are the only three Winnipeg Jets who remain from the Atlanta Thrashers relocation to Canada in 2011, and they enter Saturday’s home game against the Arizona Coyotes off a great performance. The trio combined for two goals and four assists in Thursday’s 4-1 home victory over Vancouver, sparked by Byfuglien’s three points in his first game back after missing two contests with an upper-body injury.
“It felt good to be back in the lineup with the guys,” Byfuglien told reporters after the Jets rebounded from blowing a three-goal lead in Tuesday’s overtime loss to Edmonton. “I thought we put together a decent game. It’s nice to be back and we got our two points.” Arizona also grabbed two points on Thursday, riding a pair of Vinnie Hinostroza goals to a 4-1 victory at Chicago as the Coyotes won for just the second time in six games. “We haven’t played that great and we haven’t got the results we wanted,” Arizona goaltender Antti Raanta told the media after recording 33 saves. “Today we got the scoring going.” The Coyotes had scored just three goals in regulation and were shut out three times before getting on track in the second of a four-game road trip.
TV: 4 p.m. ET, FS Arizona, TSN3 (Winnipeg)
ABOUT THE COYOTES (2-4-0): Raanta has allowed three goals or fewer in his past 16 games with Arizona dating back to Feb. 24, owning a .947 save percentage and 1.56 goals against average in that span. Center Clayton Keller finished with a goal and an assist after recording one assist and a minus-3 rating in his first five games. Arizona killed off both Chicago power plays Thursday, and have killed 13-of-14 on the season.
ABOUT THE JETS (4-2-1): Backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who made 42 saves in winning his Jets debut last Sunday, is expected to get the start Saturday. Wheeler finished with an assist for his 500th point with Winnipeg/Atlanta, becoming the second player in franchise history to reach that milestone. Little, who moved back to second-line center after Paul Stastny signed with Vegas this summer, added a goal and an assist Thursday to give him three points in his past three games.
OVERTIME
1. Arizona has surrendered just 12 goals in six games and had not given up more than 28 shots on goal until Chicago took 34 shots Thursday.
2. Winnipeg assigned rookie F Kristian Vesalainen to Manitoba of the AHL on Friday, after the 19-year-old recorded one assist in five games.
3. The Jets won all three matchups with Arizona last season, scoring four goals in each victory.