Jets wrap up summer development camp

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This article was published 07/07/2015 (3983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Winnipeg Jets wrapped up their annual summer development camp today with an entertaining show for the hundreds of fans who took in the scrimmage at the MTS Iceplex.

Fourth-round draft pick last week Michael Spacek, 18, decided the affair in overtime, scoring off a perfect feed from invitee Brandon Denham, giving Jimmy Roy’s White team a 6-5 decision over Mike Keane’s Blue side.

Denham, who plays at Robert Morris University, 2015 first-round pick Kyle Connor, seventh-round pick last week Matteao Gennaro and 2013 first-rounder Josh Morrissey — who had a superb game — also scored for the white team.

The blues had goals from 2013 fifth-round pick Tucker Poolman, free agent signing Axel Blomqvist, 2014 fifth-round pick C.J. Franklin, invitee Tyler Morley, who plays at Alaska Fairbanks and a late-game goal from St. John’s IceCaps forward Ryan Olsen to send things to a sudden-death overtime of three-on-three.

The sides played a pair of 25-minute periods, going a normal five-on-five for 15 minutes, then reducing to four-on-four for five minutes and three-on-three for the final five minutes of each period.

Scoring may have been plenty, but it was a fine outing for all four goalies, Connor Hellebuyck and Jamie Phillips for the blues and James Kruger and Eric Comrie for the whites.

Kruger and Phillips were particularly sharp in playing the game’s second half.

At its conclusion, Jets director of player development Jimmy Roy declared the fourth annual camp a success.

“A lot of the things we do this week are about the difference from what the junior and college hockey to what the pro game is like on the ice,” Roy said today. “To be able to see that in a game, see what players bring to the table, I enjoyed that.”

Roy said the camp is a useful exercise for both players and the Jets.

“I think players, once they realize and look at their peers and see who they’re playing against … then they think, ‘Holy cow, I’ve got to pick up my work ethic if I want to get to where I’m going,’” he said. “Part of the realization of them coming to this camp is where they need to be in a year or two years.”

Many of the 40 players present here for the last five days will be at the team’s rookie camp in September and the Jets will then take a team to the annual Young Stars tournament in Penticton, B.C., in early September to play against the prospects of the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

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