Jets face Leafs where they play best -- away from home

The Winnipeg Jets get a shot at revenge against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday -- and they get to do it at their preferred venue this season.

Away from home.

After losing to the Leafs 6-3 at home last Thursday, the Jets lost in overtime at Minnesota on Saturday and won 3-2 at Montreal on Monday. That improved the Jets to 13-7-2 in road games this season. No Western Conference team entered Tuesday with more road wins.

The game in Toronto is the third game of their four-game road trip which will end in Boston on Thursday.

"You're feeling good after a win in Montreal," Jets center Andrew Copp, whose goal gave Winnipeg a 3-1 lead on Monday, told reporters. "We've got two really good teams that are feeling good about themselves right now the next two (Toronto and the Boston Bruins). So if we can bring some momentum and apply that to these next two games, that can be huge for us."

The Jets have been struggling overall, going 3-5-2 in their past 10 games. But with the games in Minnesota and Montreal, they have earned points in two consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 8-10.

The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, had been on a 9-0-1 surge before they lost 6-4 at home to the Edmonton Oilers.

In that game, Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe removed No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen after he allowed two goals in the first 1:45 of the second period to give Edmonton a 3-0 lead. Andersen already had faced 19 shots. Keefe said the move was about how the team was playing and not a reflection of Andersen's performance.

"I just told our team I'm not going to let Freddie play behind that," Keefe said. "That's not fair to him. To that point I felt like he already had almost a full game worth of work. We made the change, sometimes you make those changes and it gets your team's attention. Obviously, we didn't get their attention in the first intermission like we would have liked to, like we thought that we would have or thought that we did. It didn't transfer to the ice, so I had to do something such as that to get our team's attention and to save Freddie from what was happening."

Michael Hutchinson, who earned the shutout in the 3-0 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday, allowed three goals on 16 shots after replacing Andersen.

It was a different Maple Leafs performance from Saturday. "Significantly different," Keefe said. "Just from the start of the game it didn't seem like it was going to be our day. ... It just wasn't to the same level that we've had."

The Jets have two players back in the lineup missing from their game Thursday against the Leafs. Copp returned Monday after missing eight games with an upper-body injury.

Defenseman Sami Niku played his first game with Winnipeg since Oct. 8 because of injury and an 18-game stint with the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League.

He was paired with Anthony Bitetto and had 13:21 of ice time. "He skated well, he closed gaps," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Made a couple of passes. Threw one backhand sauce up the middle of the ice to them. But I liked his game. And there were no red flags, where you're, 'What is he doing in his own end?' He went in there and held water."

--Field Level Media