WINNIPEG -- The toughest thing for the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference Second Round against the Nashville Predators has been playing like themselves each game.
The back-and-forth best-of-7 series will go to Game 7 in Nashville on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS) after the Predators defeated the Jets 4-0 in Game 6 here Monday.
The Jets have taken a lead in the series three times, and the Predators have tied it each time. Neither team has won consecutive games, and the road team has won four of the six games.
"They played well," Winnipeg defenseman Tyler Myers said. "They got a win on a big game. We weren't quite up to our normal speed. (The series is) 3-3, two best teams in the League (Nashville won the Presidents' Trophy with 117 points; Winnipeg had 114 points). We're not too worried about going to their building. We're going to come out and play our game."
The Jets usually are keyed by their quickness and speed, but there was no consistency to either in Game 6. And Winnipeg's power play was shooting blanks, going 0-for-4, including 0-for-3 in the first period.
"What was the trouble for us on the power play would have been true 5-on-5," coach Paul Maurice said. "We were trying to fiddle out of things in the game and didn't move particularly well or move the puck particularly well on those, but that was the 5-on-5 game, not just the 5-on-4 game."
Forward Patrik Laine, whose four shots on goal led the Jets, said quickness was not a strong suit in Game 6.
"We're just not skating and not moving the puck," Laine said. "That was pretty much the whole story of our game, 5-on-5 and power play. We've just got to move the puck quicker and skate faster."
Maurice said he didn't believe it was a matter of the Jets being unable to rise to the occasion in Game 6 with a chance to eliminate the Predators.
"I don't know about that," he said. "I know this: I know that [the] Pittsburgh [Penguins] lost tonight. Pretty good team. They've learned all those lessons you're supposed to learn -- killer instinct, all the words that will come out today that we didn't get -- and they lost. For all the good things [the Predators] did tonight, it wasn't there last game ... and we're a pretty good team.
"It probably should go seven games, this series. It's been back and forth, up and down, so it's probably right that it's going seven. There's lots of stuff that we didn't like. The idea that you're going to put your game out there and it's going to work because you won the last one? Then you'd have a whole bunch of teams going 16-0 (in the playoffs). There's lots of stuff we can do better tonight. We're going to do everything we can to make sure we look the way we want to look in Game 7."
Laine said he wasn't worried about an opportunity lost.
"It's only 3-3 and we still have a chance," Laine said. "Nothing is gone, and, I mean, we had a chance today and couldn't take it and we're going to have another chance on Thursday, so we've just to look forward and try to do better.
"(Game 7 will be) exciting. Just excited to have an opportunity like this. It's the same thing for both teams and it's exciting times, and a lot of players can never be in a situation like this, so you have to enjoy it."
Myers has played one previous Game 7 in the NHL, with the Buffalo Sabres when they lost 5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2011 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. He said the Jets will have high confidence going back to Nashville.
"We've taken two out of three (there) so far," he said. "And it's a fun atmosphere just like it is here. I'd feel a lot better beating them in their own rink too.
"We would have liked to be a little better, for sure, but it's just one of those nights it wasn't going for us and we have a second opportunity to take out the team that won the Presidents' Trophy this year. We're excited and we're staying positive."
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