Jets can’t climb out of early hole in 3-2 loss to Oilers

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This article was published 18/02/2021 (1663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets played a perfectly fine hockey game Wednesday night — with two glaring exceptions.

First, they fell asleep for 21 costly seconds in the opening period which quickly put them in a two-goal hole. And then, as they tried to get back into the contest, they couldn’t stay out of the penalty box.

The end result was a tough 3-2 loss to Edmonton at Rogers Place. The Jets fall to 9-6-1, while the Oilers improve to 10-8-0.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of rhythm to the game. It just got totally killed by the penalties. It sucks, you just gotta deal with that adversity and be better from it,” said Jets forward Mark Scheifele.

All eyes were on Connor McDavid to start the game, as he needed one point to hit 500 in his career. He wasted almost no time, setting up linemate Jesse Puljujarvi 3:45 into the first. McDavid reached the milestone in his 369th career contest, which is the same time it took Sidney Crosby to get there. Only seven players in NHL history have got their quicker.

“It’s obviously awesome for him. To be it in that amount of games, and in the same amount (of time) as Sid is pretty special,” said Scheifele.

Jets defenceman Derek Forbort got burned on the play, as he tried to step up near his own blue-line to close the gap only to stumble and let Puljujarvi blow by him to receive McDavid’s feed and beat Connor Hellebuyck high.

Before the goal could even be in announced in the building, Leon Draisaitl made it 2-0. The league’s reigning MVP took a saucer pass from Tyler Ennis and went in alone on Hellebuyck. Once again, it was Winnipeg’s coverage that got exposed, this time Josh Morrissey who strayed too far to the right side of the ice, opening up a huge lane for the streaking Draisaitl, who had sped past centre Adam Lowry in the neutral zone.

Winnipeg had carried play for the first three minutes of the game, getting plenty of offensive zone time and a couple good chances on Oilers goalie Mike Smith. But now they were going to have to play catch-up.

“We came out right on. Stumbled on one, and then we didn’t miss a check, the guy (Lowry) knew he had him, he just couldn’t catch him. And that’s the dangerous part of the Edmonton Oilers. They can get at some breaks and beat you like that. You’re down 2-0, you can’t sit here and say you liked your start, those are two pretty big gaffes, but I did, I like the way we came out to play,” said coach Paul Maurice.

The Jets caught a break late in the period when Darnell Nurse was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking Nikolaj Ehlers. There was just one problem — it was friendly fire, courtesy of Ehlers’ teammate Andrew Copp.

Winnipeg took advantage of the gift as Scheifele fired a shot that was deflected by Edmonton’s Jujhar Khaira and past goalie Mike Smith with 54 seconds left in the period. It’s the eighth goal of the year for the Jets No. 1 centre. Scheifele now has points in eight straight games (five goals, seven assists) and sits in fifth place in the NHL scoring race.

“I’m playing with good players. Just try to play the right way all the time, and if you play the right way you’ll get rewarded,” said Scheifele.

You knew there was a good chance the officials would recognize their error during the intermission and perhaps try to make good. Which might explain four minors to the visitors in the middle frame.

“It was just a weird game. For me, the flow wasn’t there. It seemed like a power play one way, a power play the other way, one five-on-five shift, a TV timeout. Lots of whistles. It goes both ways, right? At times we had the momentum and then TV timeout. At times they had momentum and then TV timeout. It was all night, lots of whistles, lots of faceoffs,” said Jets centre Paul Stastny.

The third Jets infraction, a tripping call against Nathan Beaulieu, resulted in Edmonton’s third goal. Hellebuyck made a great save off Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but Draisaitl pounded on the rebound and put it just under the crossbar for his 10th of the year at 16:45. McDavid also drew a helper as he begins working on his next 500 points.

Winnipeg wouldn’t go away quietly, as defenceman Neal Pionk scored a four-on-four goal just 1:28 into the third period when he blasted a shot past Smith after being set-up by Ehlers.

Pionk has certainly opened plenty of eyes with his play these last two games against the Oilers. He had two assists against Edmonton in Monday’s wild 6-5 win and took a massive run at McDavid. And, in addition to his goal Wednesday, he threw a wicked, old school hip check on Tyler Ennis that sent him flying through the air.

Pionk, with 13 points in 16 games, trails just four NHL defencemen in that category.

But that’s as close as the Jets would get. The final dagger was a high-sticking penalty to Ehlers with just over three minutes left in the game, which was Winnipeg’s sixth minor of the night. Although they went five-for-six in kills, the one that didn’t ended up being the game-winner. Plus, all that time they spent shorthanded took them off the offensive attack.

The Jets had five power plays of their own, including three in the opening period, and cashed in just once.

“I think it’s more on us on the power play. We converted once but we’ve got to have more possession, more chances than we did. You look at their power play, they scored once but they put a lot of pressure and all of a sudden it tires guys out like (Lowry) and (Andrew Copp) and (Trevor Lewis) and (Mason Appleton) and our d-core. Sometimes it’s the little things inside the game that make the difference,” said Stastny.

Hellebuyck finished with 27 saves, while Smith had 33 in the victory.

“You walk off the bench in a bad mood every time you lose a game. It wasn’t a missed opportunity. We played hard, they played hard, their goalie was good, our goalie was good,” said Maurice.

“The flow of the game was tough to get a handle on, but I thought we were trying to grind through it. We won’t spend too much emotional energy on it.”

Winnipeg now heads to Vancouver for a pair of games on Friday and Sunday night to finish up this four-game western road trip. The Jets currently occupy the fourth and final playoff spot in the Canadian Division, two points ahead of both Vancouver and Calgary.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg