Blue Jackets, Jets both riding momentum into Saturday tilt

A three-goal third period to cap a comeback victory has the Columbus Blue Jackets believing they are on the cusp of a bold leap forward.

Thanks to their 5-4 home win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, the Blue Jackets head into a Saturday road clash with the Winnipeg Jets riding a three-game winning streak and 4-1-1 mark in their last six, which has pulled them within four points of a playoff spot.

Just as important as the raw numbers is the belief among the Blue Jackets they are on the right track.

"It's an understanding of who we are and who we need to be, and you saw that," captain Nick Foligno told the Columbus Dispatch. "You saw the tenacity that we played with, the edge, the grind and some great goals because of it. We (drew) some penalties because of it. That's Blue Jacket hockey. That's the way we need to play. That's the mandate in here, and it's nice to see we got to it."

Columbus also received a boost by adding veteran coach Paul MacLean as an assistant to the staff, with the club's special teams his main focus. The Blue Jackets scored a pair of power-play goals in the win.

"He's been around a long time and you respect what he says and what he has to say about our team," forward Cam Atkinson said. "Sometimes it's nice to bring in a guy like that and kind of give you the outlook of how we should be playing and kind of what we've gotten away from."

The Jets return home after a 5-3 loss at the Dallas Stars on Thursday, a game in which they erased a three-goal deficit only to lose on a tiebreaking goal with less than five minutes to play followed by an empty-netter. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak, but winning three of four games during a single road swing is nothing to scoff at, and the Jets know it.

"It's too bad it ended that way, but three out of four against four good teams, we put ourselves in a pretty good spot here," captain Blake Wheeler told NHL.com. "We've been playing really well this month. You can't get too down after this loss. You want to win them all but I think for the most part our game is where we want it."

The league schedule makers aren't exactly doing the Jets a favor right now. This home game is a single date that breaks up the recent four-game trip that saw them face Florida, Tampa Bay, Nashville and Dallas, and a three-game swing through California. While battling the fatigue factor will be a big part of the short-term strategy for the coaching staff, Paul Maurice expects his players to provide the same determination they showed on their trip, including the recent loss.

"(The road trip) was outstanding. Our best game on effort is in Nashville. On execution, it's Florida. I liked our heart in here tonight, probably not our execution so much," Maurice said after the defeat in Dallas. "Come off a 10-day trip, go home, go back out for a long one again, you want the heart to be there first."

--Field Level Media