Major penalty leads to lopsided Jets win
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JANESVILLE—The Janesville Ice Arena may have played host to the North American Hockey League's closest 8-1 game ever Friday night.
The Janesville Jets carried a one-goal lead into the final 10 minutes of the game but rattled off six goals in as many minutes to win in an eventual blowout.
Cullen Munson had a hat trick in the third period alone, and Adam Winborg scored twice early in an 8-1 playoff-opening victory over the Michigan Warriors in a North Division semifinal series. The Jets will carry momentum into Game 2 of the best-of-five series tonight.
“That five-minute penalty helped,” Munson said of the major penalty that led to four of the six third-period goals. “That's not going to happen every game, so we've got to bear down and play better in the first two periods.”
The Jets improved to 9-0 this year against the Warriors, but the first 50 minutes were as close as they come.
Winborg's goal eight minutes into the game put Janesville on the board, and his power-play tally in the opening moments of the second period made it 2-0. Michigan's Ryan Burr answered with a power-play slapshot midway through the period, and it remained 2-1 until the final nine minutes of the game.
“It was sloppy for the first 20 minutes; they kind of punched us in the mouth right off the bat,” Janesville assistant coach Erik Largen said. “The second period was better, and then the third period we got a couple goals and then the power play at the end obviously changed things.”
Brandon Schultz gave the Jets some breathing room when he stuffed home Evan Feno's flick to the front of the net at 11:39 to go up 3-1.
Less than two minutes later, Munson got his first goal to make it 4-1. Dan Kucerovy gave extra effort to hold the offensive zone and handed off to Mitch Fossier. Fossier carried in deep and fed Munson for a wide-open shot out front and a 4-1 lead.
“That (work by Kucerovy) made the play happen, and then 'Foss' had a great pass,” Munson said. “I got great setups from the guys. We were moving the puck really well.”
Munson opened and closed the barrage of goals on the five-minute major power play.
Aleksi Ainail and Zach Solow also scored as the floodgates opened. Fossier finished with four assists.
Jets goalie Matt Jurusik stopped 23 of the 24 shots he saw to win his 25th consecutive decision dating back to November.
“This should give the power play some confidence and hopefully some guys that were a little bit tight, it loosens them up a little bit,” Largen said. “It was a 2-1 game for 50 minutes. We know they're going to give their best effort tomorrow, and we've got to give ours.”
The Jets and Warriors drop the puck at 7 p.m. tonight.
JANESVILLE 8, MICHIGAN 1
Michigan 0 1 0—1
Janesville 1 1 6—8
First Period
J—Adam Winborg (Grant Hutton, Mitch Fossier), 8:00.
Second Period
J—Winborg (Brandon Schultz), pp, :28. M—Ryan Burr (AJ Marcinek, Cam Jorgensen), pp, 9:05.
Third Period
J—Schultz (Evan Feno, Zach LaValle), 11:39. J —Cullen Munson (Fossier, Dan Kucerovy), 13:10. J—Munson (Hutton, Fossier), pp, 14:35. J—Aleksi Ainail (Fossier, Munson), pp, 15:27. J—Zach Solow (Ainail, Roberts Smits), pp, 16:40. J—Munson, (Kevin Dineen, Kucerovy), pp, 17:36.
Saves—Chase Munroe (M) 29, Ryan Wischow (M) 0, Matt Jurusik (J) 23.
Attendance—424.