On Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins make their second trip to Winnipeg for their meeting with the Jets. Pittsburgh is coming off a 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators, putting an end to a two-game losing streak. The Winnipeg Jets enter Friday’s matchup looking to rebound from a 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on February 12.
When and where: MTS Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada); 7:00 p.m. et (ROOT Sports, CBC, RDS)
Season records: Penguins (9-5-0; 18 pts.); Jets (7-4-2; 16 pts.)
Season series: Jets lead 1-0
Last meeting: The Penguins and Jets last met on January 24 in Winnipeg. The Jets overcame a two-goal deficit and scored four unanswered goals to defeat the Penguins 4-2. Sidney Crosby scored two first period goals to account for the Penguins’ scoring. The Jets were led by goals from Evander Kane, Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, and Blake Wheeler. Ondrej Pavelec made thirty-three save to pick up his second win of the young season.
Players to keep an eye on:
1. Evander Kane: The fourth overall selection in the 2009 NHL draft has been a thorn in the Penguins’ side as of late. Earlier in the season, Kane had a five-game points scoring streak included his two point performance against the Penguins. On the season, he has three goals and six assists to sit fourth on the team in scoring.
2. Dustin Byfuglien: The primary person on the Jets’ blue line, Byfuglien possess a heavy shot that he has used twenty-six times in seven games. The twenty-seven year old defenseman is ranked right behind Kane on the Jets in scoring with seven points (3 goals, 4 assists). A lower-body injury kept Byfuglien out of five of the Jets’ last six games. He returned against the Flyers, but registered no points and was plus-1.
Injuries:
Penguins: None
Jets: D Zach Bogosian (wrist; expected to make his season debut tonight), RW Antti Miettinen (upper body), G Al Montoya (lower body)
Former Penguins alert: LW Eric Tangradi, RW Chris Thorburn
Projected lineups (via Empty Netters):
Penguins
14 Chris Kunitz-87 Sidney Crosby (C)-9 Pascal Dupuis
24 Matt Cooke-71 Evgeni Malkin (A)-18 James Neal
19 Beau Bennett-16 Brandon Sutter-48 Tyler Kennedy
10 Tanner Glass-46 Joe Vitale-27 Craig Adams
2 Matt Niskanen-58 Kris Letang
44 Brooks Orpik (A)-7 Paul Martin
47 Simon Despres-5 Deryk Engelland
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
Jets:
16 Andrew Ladd (C)-18 Bryan Little-26 Blake Wheeler
9 Evander Kane-8 Alexander Burmistrov-80 Nik Antropov
27 Eric Tangradi-12 Olli Jokinen (A)-13 Kyle Wellwood
17 James Wright-19 Jim Slater-22 Chris Thorburn
39 Tobias Enstrom-33 Dustin Byfuglien
6 Ron Hainsey-44 Zach Bogosian
5 Mark Stuart (A)-25 Zach Redmond
31Ondrej Pavelec
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