New coach Maurice lights a fire under lackluster Jets in debut
WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets found the energy they have lacked for weeks and made new coach Paul Maurice a winner in his debut behind the bench by routing the Phoenix Coyotes 5-1 on Monday night.
Olli Jokinen, Eric O'Dell, Blake Wheeler, Michael Frolik and Devin Setoguchi scored for the Jets, who held a 38-19 shots advantage.
"I went in and talked a little bit about what I saw, congratulated them on facing some tough adversity and winning, thanked them, and then proceeded to cancel the day off that they had (Tuesday)," he said after the Jets ended a five-game losing streak.
"It was good enough tonight," Maurice said, "but we can't rely on that being good enough in our next game. We've just got to get better."
Maurice, who took over after Claude Noel was fired on Sunday, got his first cheer during the national anthem when his face showed on the scoreboard.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson gave Phoenix a 1-0 lead during a power play at 12:16, but the Coyotes didn't have much time to celebrate.
Jokinen batted a behind-the-net pass from Dustin Byfuglien past Mike Smith at 12:52 to tie it, and O'Dell scored his second of the season at 18:00. The Jets kept up the pressure in the second until Wheeler backhanded in Mark Scheifele's rebound to make it 3-1. At the halfway mark of the period the Jets had outshot Phoenix 9-1.
HIGHLIGHTS