Jets hopefuls strut stuff after event-opening loss

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This article was published 09/09/2019 (2229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

COACH Pascal Vincent wanted to see a lot more out of his group of prospects after a dismal performance in the opening game of the rookie showcase event in Belleville, Ont.

His team certainly responded in kind on Sunday night as the Winnipeg Jets hopefuls skated to hard-fought 2-1 victory over a collection of Montreal Canadiens up-and-comers.

Defence proved to be the best offence, with goals from blue-liners Ville Heinola (2019 first-rounder) and Johnathan Kovacevic (2017 third-rounder).

Goaltender Griffen Outhouse also had a strong game, stopping 20 of 21 shots he faced and being awarded the game’s first star. Heinola, 18, playing for just the second time on smaller North American ice, showed his smooth skating and puck-moving ability and was named third star of the night.

It was a much more positive result after the Jets opened the three-team event with an 8-1 loss on Friday night to the Ottawa Senators. In that contest, Vincent remarked that his group’s energy level went “close to zero” after a competitive opening period.

“It was not just one or two players. It was the whole team,” Vincent, the bench boss of the Manitoba Moose, told Jets TV following Sunday’s morning skate.

There’s no question Ottawa, and even Montreal, have more talent on their rosters. Winnipeg is without a number of its most promising prospects, due to either injuries (G Mikhail Berdin and F Skyler McKenzie), college commitments (D Dylan Samberg, F Harrison Blaisdell and G Logan Neaton) or European team commitments (D Simon Lundmark, F Henri Nikkanen, F Santeri Virtanen and G Arvid Holm).

That means filling out the lineup with a number of undrafted free agents simply looking for an opportunity, such as Outhouse. The 21-year-old from British Columbia spent the past four seasons playing with Victoria of the Western Hockey League and is headed to play USports hockey this fall with the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

He’ll have a nice story to tell his fellow students and teammates after Sunday’s showing. He also stopped nine of 10 shots in Friday’s third period after replacing Game 1 starter Adam Carlson, who is signed to an AHL deal with the Manitoba Moose and was beaten seven times on 27 shots before getting the hook.

The one thing the Jets can control is effort, and this one was much-improved overall. The team will try to get some revenge when they close out the event this evening with a re-match against the Senators.

After that, a number of players will return to Winnipeg for the start of main NHL training camp later this week.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg