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Sports

Jones, Preds eye another road victory in trip to Winnipeg

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

(SportsNetwork.com) - Seth Jones made sure his first NHL game in Canada was a memorable one.

The rookie defenseman aims to lead the Nashville Predators to a second straight road victory on Sunday night in a meeting with the Winnipeg Jets.

Jones, the fourth overall pick of the 2013 draft, tallied his second career goal and first game-winner in Saturday's 2-1 victory in Montreal. Jones made a pass to David Legwand off the boards and took a return feed while crashing towards the net. The 19-year-old then wristed the go-ahead score home with 1:27 to play for his fourth point in eight games this season.

"It felt good to get it in that last minute," said Jones. "It was our first game in Canada, and it felt good. I feel good right now, I think I'm playing very well, and I'm confident."

Shea Weber also scored and Legwand assisted on both goals for the Predators, who are 4-1-1 since opening the season with consecutive road losses. Pekka Rinne made 28 saves.

Rinne has started all eight games for Nashville this season and lifetime versus the Jets franchise is 4-0-0 with a 2.90 goals against average in five games (4 starts). Backup Carter Hutton has never faced the Jets and owns just one career start. His only appearance this season was in relief of Rinne on Oct. 3 in St. Louis, where he gave up one goal on 22 shots in 50 minutes of action.

Winnipeg was in danger of losing a second straight game on Friday versus the Blues, trailing 3-1 at the 3:34 mark of the third period. However, Evander Kane got a rally started with 6:47 to go in regulation with his fourth goal of the season, while Tobias Enstrom forced overtime with his first tally of the campaign with 1:54 on the clock.

Olli Jokinen then completed the comeback with the game-winner in the seventh round of the shootout.

"We had opportunities to get demoralized and get discouraged a bit, but I thought against a team that can close out games like St. Louis we really stuck to the plan," said Winnipeg head coach Claude Noel.

Ondrej Pavelec made 29 saves as the Jets improved to 2-2-0 on their six-game homestand.

The victory was dampened a bit by the loss of 19-year-old defenseman Jacob Trouba, who was taken off the ice on a stretcher at the 2:50 mark of the second period. The ninth-overall pick of the 2012 draft missed a check attempt and fell into the end boards.

He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a neck sprain that will keep him in a brace for two weeks. He was released from the hospital and the Jets placed the blueliner on injured reserve Saturday.

Trouba, who had a goal and an assist in eight games this season, appeared to be in good spirits on Saturday, tweeting, "Thanks for the support. If you were wondering, the boards are not edible. I'll be back soon. #gojetsgo."

Pavelec is 1-1-0 with a 2.25 GAA in three games (2 starts) versus the Predators, who have won two straight and six of the last eight meetings between the clubs.

Nashville will be making its first trip to Winnipeg since the Jets franchise relocated from Atlanta before the 2011-12 campaign. The Preds hosted the Jets that season, notching a 3-1 win.