Burmistrov went from goat to hero in 2 minutes
Hits the ice after bad penalty, immediately pots winner for Jets
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2015 (3622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO — How long does it take to go from the doghouse to the penthouse?
It took Winnipeg Jets left-winger Alex Burmistrov two minutes 12 seconds Wednesday night and the conclusion to that mini-drama in which he was headed for potential goat horns was a decisive one.
Burmistrov came up with the winning goal with just 2:05 left in a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre.
The first two minutes of Burmistrov’s journey were spent in the penalty box, nabbed for holding Leo Komarov’s stick.
When he popped free, he took the precisely cleared puck by Brian Little, worked a two-on-one with Blake Wheeler and beat Leafs goalie James Reimer to snap the 2-2 tie.
“Oh, I can’t even explain even how big that is for me,” Burmistrov said after his second goal of the season but first against a goalie, delivering the Jets to 8-4-1. “Because it’s been tough for me since I came back, learning this game back.”
Burmistrov had been in the penalty box as well in the first period, leading to Toronto’s power-play goal by P.A. Parenteau.
The victory pulled the Jets to a 5-2-0 mark on the road so far this season, with Thursday’s game in Ottawa coming up.
The Leafs played a spunky game, though they never led, and dropped to 2-8-2 under new coach Mike Babcock.
The response: The Jets, including their coach Paul Maurice, were looking for a response game after a 5-1 defeat Sunday in Montreal.
They got it, though at times there weren’t many free paths to the net.
Still, they leaned hard on the Leafs in the third period of the 2-2 game and outshot the home team 14-5 in the final frame.
Power declining: Winnipeg’s power play had just two chances Wednesday.
It was poor in the second period and the same for the first minute of one in the third, then some big-time pressure kicked in that had the Leafs on the run.
Still, that makes just two power-play goals in the last seven games, and the team’s percentage has sagged to 21.6 per cent.
Bryan Little’s short-handed goal into the empty net technically allowed the Jets to claim a saw-off on the special teams Wednesday.
Little soars: Bryan Little ended the game with a 10-16 mark on faceoffs, but don’t always assume the stats tell the final story.
Little was having a miserable night in the faceoff circle through two periods at 2-14 according to the ACC stats folks.
He was instrumental in the Jets’ push to win the game in the third.
In that period, the veteran Jets centre, who gets most of the tough assignments against the opposition’s elite players, won eight of 10 faceoffs, did some great penalty-killing work, sent Burmistrov and Wheeler away for the winning goal and then added his own empty-netter while on the penalty kill.
Little, who played 19:42, ended a plus-two on the night.
Pulling the trigger: Mark Scheifele seems to enjoy playing against the Maple Leafs.
The 22-year-old centre from nearby Kitchener scored Wednesday night, his fourth goal in five career games against Toronto.
Scheifele’s goal was an important first-period response for the Jets, coming from a fine forecheck just 37 seconds after the Leafs had scored on the power play.
Lineup adjustment: The Jets have ruled out rookie centre Andrew Copp for Thursday in Ottawa. It will be the third game he’ll miss due to an upper-body injury suffered Saturday in Columbus.
Copp was placed on the injured reserve list Wednesday, and to take his place on the roster, they recalled centre Patrice Cormier from the Moose.
Cormier sat out the game versus the Leafs as the fourth line was Nic Petan in between Anthony Peluso and Chris Thorburn.
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Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 7:52 PM CST: Period update
Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 7:57 PM CST: Updates photo
Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 8:55 PM CST: period update
Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 9:29 PM CST: Period update
Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 10:23 PM CST: final writethrough