After picking up 11 of a possible 16 points on their recently concluded homestand, the Winnipeg Jets knew they would have to keep up that pace during a tricky three-game road swing.

Facing the team with the best home record in the NHL, the Jets were simply no match Thursday night, losing 6-1 to the Bruins in Boston to shave away a good chunk of what was already pretty small odds to make the playoffs.

The Jets kept it close for 20 minutes, but the Bruins took over the game with two goals in the second and a three-goal third period to end the Jets’ three-game point streak.

“Execution started to deteriorate and after that, I thought that we had plays to make, whether that was breakouts, whether that was entries,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We had some odd man looks on the power play. Our execution wasn’t real good.  Then kinda as the game went on, as it got to three-nothing, it was still a game. But at the end of the day, we didn’t execute and our compete level dropped.”

Jonathan Toews scored their only goal, giving him markers in back-to-back games.

Connor Hellebuyck allowed six goals in a game for the first time in more than three years.

Arniel shook up his lines in the final frame, but they still couldn’t get back in the game.

“I thought we had quite a few chances in the first period,” said Jets forward Brad Lambert who had one assist. “Obviously their goalie made some good saves. We got a couple unlucky bounces and just weren’t able to bury it.”

It’s the fifth time this season and the second time in just a week the Jets have surrendered six goals in a single contest.

“I think we couldn’t move the puck really quickly from the back end,” said Jets defenceman Elias Salomonsson. “I think we let them set up in their trap and (it’s) hard to get through there with speed. So, I think that’s thing we should have done better.”

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The Bruins swept the two-game season series, and the Jets have just a 3-9-4 mark against the Atlantic Division this season, their worst record since moving to Winnipeg.

The Jets had the game’s first good scoring chance on a 2-on-1 just a couple minutes in. Adam Lowry chose to shoot instead of pass and his shot was denied by Jeremy Swayman.

Gustav Nyquist went to the box 4:19 into the game and Boston nearly scored on the man advantage. Hellebuyck lost his stick during the flow of play and Casey Mittelstadt wired a shot off the post.

Winnipeg picked up their first power play chance a couple minutes later when Jacob Bryson was high-sticked by David Pastrnak, and since it cut Bryson’s face, it gave Winnipeg a four-minute man advantage.

The Jets were unable to capitalize, generating four shots but never really threatening to score.

Boston opened the scoring with just over five minutes left in the first in part because the Jets made a mess of trying to clear the puck out of their own end.

All three of Mark Scheifele, Alex Iafallo and Kyle Connor had the puck on their stick at one point but each time lost it to a Bruin. The fatal blow was when Connor found a loose puck near the crease and tried to chip it to the boards, but Pastrnak knocked it out of mid-air, settled it and fired a shot that beat Hellebuyck five-hole.

The Bruins took the 1-0 lead to the second period after outshooting Winnipeg 13-9 over the opening 20 minutes.

Boston doubled their lead at the 6:23 mark of the second thanks to another disaster in the Jets’ end.

Jonathan Aspirot dumped the puck in from the neutral zone, prompting Hellebuyck to go behind his net to knock the puck down. Unfortunately for him, the puck bounced off his stick and skittered in front of the net where Lukas Reichel was ready to bang it into the empty net in his first game as a Bruin.

With just under six minutes to go in the period, Winnipeg had their best chance of the game to that point. Some great puck movement in the Bruins’ end led to a Connor cross-ice pass to a wide-open Gabriel Vilardi but his one-timer was denied by a sprawling Swayman.

Less than two minutes later, Mittelstadt found himself in alone on Hellebuyck and put a deke on the Jets’ goalie but was unable to complete the play as the puck rolled off his stick and off the side of the net.

The Bruins increased their lead with 1:44 to go in the period. The puck was on the stick of Viktor Arvidsson in the corner when he tried to pass it in front but it was deflected by Dylan DeMelo, leading to a hot-potato sequence where several players on both teams touched the puck at some point in the net-front area before it wound up floating past Hellebuyck. Arvidsson was given credit for the goal.

Boston outshot the Jets 8-7 in the middle frame.

Boston extended their lead to 4-0 early in the third when Pavel Zacha wired a shot past Hellebuyck not long after winning an offensive zone faceoff.

The Jets finally got on the board with 14:22 left when Toews deflected a Salomonsson shot past Swayman on the power play, the second straight game in which Toews has scored after going two months without a marker.

Winnipeg controlled play for a few minutes after the Toews goal but were unable to claw any closer.

Boston made it 5-1 with 4:08 left when Pastrnak spun in the corner and sent a pass to the crease that was steered past Hellebuyck by Fraser Minten, who was not covered well by DeMelo.

Aspirot got in on the fun with 1:42 left when he beat Hellebuyck with a wrister from the slot.

Hellebuyck allowed all six goals on 28 shots, while Swayman turned aside 22 of 23 shots in the win.

Winnipeg will now head to Pittsburgh for a matinee date with the Penguins on Saturday to start a back-to-back.

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