Norris shines in return as Sabres humiliate Winnipeg Jets 5-1

It turns out that beating the last-place Predators Saturday night wasn’t a cure-all for the Winnipeg Jets.

The Jets went into Buffalo Monday night, got embarrassed by the Sabres in the first period and never recovered en route to a 5-1 defeat.

Just 91 seconds in, Dylan DeMelo was called for holding in the neutral zone and Buffalo made the Jets pay on the power play.

With Winnipeg chasing the puck and unable to clear it, Josh Norris was left with all kinds of time and space to find Josh Doan alone in front. He steered a hard pass on goal that trickled through Eric Comrie and sat in the crease before Jason Zucker banged it home.

It went from bad to worse for the Jets when the Sabres doubled their lead just 15 seconds later. Buffalo carved Winnipeg in transition before Bowen Byram collected a cross-ice pass, skated in on Comrie and ripped a shot past him.

The lead ballooned to three goals when Norris got on the board, playing in his first game since he was injured in Buffalo’s season-opener.

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A clean breakout pass sprung the Sabres on a 3-on-2, where Tage Thompson dropped the puck down low in the Winnipeg end to Norris who put a backhand on goal from a tough angle. Dylan Samberg had dropped to a knee in the crease, trying to take a cross-crease pass away but the shot from Norris banked in off of Samberg.

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Buffalo outshot the Jets 14-8 in the first and knocked Comrie out of the net after 20 minutes as Thomas Milic took over from there.

Winnipeg finally showed signs of life just past the midway point when they got on the board thanks to their top players. Josh Morrissey made a juke at the blue line before dropping the puck to Mark Scheifele along the wall. Morrissey then cut to the middle of the ice where he one-timed a pass from Scheifele that Kyle Connor tipped through Ukk0-Pekka Luukkonen for his 13th goal of the season.

The good vibes for Winnipeg were short-lived as the Sabres restored the three-goal lead just 1:23 later.

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A turnover and a bad line change led to a 2-on-1 for Buffalo. Alex Tuch was denied by Milic before the rebound rolled to the corner but Tuch caught up to the puck and, from just below the goal line, took a shot that banked off Milic and into the net.

The Sabres extended their lead early the third, fileting the Jets in transition once again. Rasmus Dahlin skated behind his own net with the puck and banked it off the boards into the neutral zone where Zach Benson one-touched it to a streaking Norris. Norris stormed in on a breakaway and deked out Milic before beating him five-hole, capping off a fantastic return to the lineup for him.

Nothing much happened from there, save for Peyton Krebs delivering a hard, clean open ice hit on Cole Perfetti that Logan Stanley took exception to, sparking a brief melee that earned three players, including Stanley, a misconduct for the rest of the night.

Comrie got saddled with the loss, making 11 saves while Milic turned aside 15 shots in relief as the Jets have now gone 1-5 since Connor Hellebuyck went on injured reserve.

Winnipeg will wrap up this five-game road trip Wednesday night in Montreal. The puck drops just after 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting a little after 4 p.m.