Jets goalies shine in opener

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This article was published 22/09/2015 (3852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With two pre-season rosters full of hopeful NHL prospects, of course a Central Division game broke out.

It’s just in the DNA of the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild.

Wild defenceman Matt Dumba scored off a faceoff at 4:12 of overtime — the league’s new three-on-three variety — and lifted the visitors to a 1-0 victory over the Jets before 15,294 at the MTS Centre.

It was the Jets’ first outing of the pre-season.

A different group of Jets will travel to Edmonton today and meet the Oilers in a pre-season game at Rexall Place tonight at 8 p.m.

The game went back and forth much of the night but the scorers were foiled by Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom and Jets goalies Ondrej Pavelec and Connor Hellebuyck, who came in to start the third.

The Jets outshot the Wild 28-26.

September Sharpie

Pavelec was the sharpest of the trio, and surely of his team.

“We’ve got good goaltenders,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “We’ve got some good goaltending here. You wanted more (analysis)? Let’s just save it for the regular season.”

Of the 19 shots he faced, Pavelec had three major second-period saves that would likely have brought standing ovations during the regular season.

He stopped Tyler Graovac’s one-timer about three minutes into the second, moving to his left, then made a beauty of a save on Erik Huala at the 14:20 mark of the period.

In the final minute of the second, he was unflinching and gloved Charlie Coyle’s deke attempt when Coyle was left unattended for enough of a moment at the edge of the crease.

“I don’t know if (sharp) is the right word,” Pavelec said. “It’s the first game. You never know what you’re going to get. You never know what the game’s going to look like. A lot of new guys. I felt good. I tried to do the things simple and wait for the puck and get that feeling again.

“It was a good game, good scoring chances on both sides.”

The kids

Among several youngsters on audition for open jobs with the Jets, Maurice just didn’t feel like heaping on further pressure by singling any of them out.

He did admit that one or more furthered their case with Tuesday’s effort.

“I don’t know that I would use ‘significantly,’ but yes,” the coach said.

There was a pause in the interview room, hoping Maurice would say more.

“Not a chance,” he continued, using an example by just pulling a name out of the air.

“Because then it becomes the Blake Wheeler watch (as in) ‘I thought Blake gave himself a far better chance to play on our team this year,’ and I’ll have to answer questions about Blake for the next two weeks.

“This is going to get tougher and tougher as we go and the lineups are going to change. I may have a young player I liked an awful lot and in two weeks time that may not be right there and we’re talking about the failure or what he’s done wrong or how he’s fallen off when he’s been good.

“So just let this play out and we’ll see where we are.”

The return

Alex Burmistrov said after the game he was “nervous.”

The 23-year-old centre is back from Russia and Tuesday was in a North American game for the first time in more than two years.

“I think we played pretty good,” he said. “Me, I could have played better but it was the first game and it’s always hard to play the first one.

“It’s different hockey. Big difference (in ice). It’s tougher here. For sure it’s tougher. Hockey’s faster. You have to think faster.”

He said he’s got one goal for his next outing.

“Shoot the puck more, probably,” he said. “We had lots of chances to shoot the puck and didn’t do it.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca