Jets fall 3-1 to Flames in opening tilt of Young Stars Classic

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This article was published 11/09/2015 (4037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It likely wasn’t intentional, but the off-season carried right into the first period of the first game for the Winnipeg Jets at the Vancouver Canucks Young Stars Classic.

Before they figured out where the switch was, the young Jets were down 2-0 in the first 10 minutes and eventually lost 3-1 to the Calgary Flames at the South Okanagan Events Centre.

“In the first period we were a little bit slow to react to things,” said Manitoba Moose coach Keith McCambridge, who’s handling the Jets at this four-team tournament. “We were kind of still in summer mode.”

The Jets did bring a better game to the second and third periods and their skill started to create some offence.

But in the end, Winnipeg was outshot 37-24 and the final margin was an empty-net goal by Calgary’s Morgan Klimchuk with four seconds left, right at the end of Winnipeg’s unsuccessful late-game power play.

“It’s the first game, the first period, but sometimes guys are so excited to get on the ice and showcase themselves to management they want to take that puck and do it all by themselves,” McCambridge said. “But there are other players on the other team that are pretty good themselves.”

Even though the Jets started as if they’d just gotten off a bus from Winnipeg, all is not lost.

“It went how we expected it would,” said Winnipeg’s Brendan Lemieux, who had his team’s only goal late in the first period. “It was a bit scrambly there in the beginning. It probably took us a minute to get our feet under us. Overall we started to come together as a team late in the game and started to feel better and better every shift.

“You can see how much talent a lot of these guys have and it’s exciting.”

Early goals

Bryce Van Brabant and Ryan Lomberg — who played on the same team as 2015 Winnipeg first-round pick Kyle Connor last season — beat Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck before 10 minutes had gone by.

Hellebuyck looked weak on the second goal, Lomberg’s shot coming from a bad angle, but he didn’t wilt, stopping the next 13 he faced before leaving the game at the half-way point.

Penalty-shot wall

Eric Comrie had the unenviable task of coming into the game midway through the second period and facing a penalty shot about three minutes into his work.

Jets defenceman Aaron Harstad was whistled for hacking Lomberg during a breakaway — a turnover by Harstad was the mistake that started the play — but Comrie icily stood his ground and blocked Lomberg’s quick shot.

“I guess that’s not the most favourable situation but if you’re going to hop into a game, why not hop into a tougher situation?” Comrie said. “Get it over with right away and it gets you going for the rest of the game.

“I felt good. There are always things, like puck-handling things, and little things you can do, but for a first game, it felt good. I’d like to build off it and play better.”

Comrie stopped all 17 shots he faced.

A close call

The Jets thought they had tied the game at 8:22 of the second on a two-on-one between Chase De Leo and Andrew Copp.

De Leo managed to elude the defender and slip the puck to an open Copp, and when he deked Flames goalie Jon Gillies, looked to have the open cage for a goal.

Gillies rallied to get a pad on the puck and it was ruled a save by the two referees. The arena’s mediocre replay board, however, appeared to show the puck over the line when Gillies blocked the puck with his pad, but it was ruled a save.

“I felt like it was across the line, but I probably didn’t deserve that,” Copp said. “That (shot) should have been upstairs. I think as we start getting in the flow and get some games, I’d bury that. But I wish I had that one back.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca