Preview: Blackhawks at Jets

[February 06, 2015]  The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL, but they certainly haven't resembled such a club lately. Chicago looks for answers offensively when it continues its seven-game road trip against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. The Blackhawks enter the Central Division contest tied for sixth in the league with 155 goals but have been shut out in each of their last two outings to fall to 2-3-0 on their trek.

Winnipeg enters the opener of its three-game homestand with a losing streak that reached five contests (0-4-1) with a 3-2 overtime setback at Vancouver on Tuesday. Bryan Little set up Blake Wheeler's tally before converting a power-play chance to give the Jets a 2-1 lead, but the Canucks scored the tying goal with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the third period and the winner 36 seconds into the extra session. Winnipeg has dominated the Blackhawks this season, outscoring them 10-3 while winning all three meetings in Chicago.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NHLN, CSN Chicago, TSN3 (Winnipeg)

ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (31-18-2): In dropping 2-0 and 3-0 decisions at San Jose and Minnesota, respectively, Chicago suffered back-to-back shutout losses for the first time since Oct. 25-30, 2006 - when it was blanked in three straight contests. Captain Jonathan Toews offered no excuses for his team's struggles after the setback to the Wild. "We've got no one else to blame but ourselves," the All-Star said. "We've got to look to each other to step it up. We've got to be big boys and play like it in the next one."

ABOUT THE JETS (26-18-9): Evander Kane missed Tuesday's contest and was placed on injured reserve two days later with an undisclosed injury that coach Paul Maurice told the Winnipeg Free Press the 23-year-old had been playing through. Maurice did create some mystery, however, when he stated that Kane was scratched from the game against Vancouver as a coach's decision. "We've dealt with it from my end and so far as it can be dealt with," Maurice said. "I know that when I come out and say 'coach's decision' that I open all of this up to a tremendous amount of speculation, and I can live with that."

OVERTIME

1. The Jets recalled C Patrice Cormier from St. John's of the American Hockey League. The 24-year-old recorded a goal and four assists in 49 NHL games with the franchise over the previous four campaigns.

2. Chicago has yet to lose three consecutive games this season.

3. Winnipeg has allowed 23 goals during its losing streak, including five in each of the first four games of the slide.

PREDICTION: Blackhawks 4, Jets 1

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