Kid-line comes through for Jets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2016 (3342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If this was a statement game, Scott Kosmachuk, Chase De Leo and JC Lipon did their best to be heard.

The trio of young forwards, all in their second or third seasons as pros, played as a unit Sunday night and, if nothing else, made the personnel decisions facing Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice and his staff even more difficult.

Kosmachuk scored once and added two assists, De Leo had two assists and the hard-nosed Lipon chipped in with a spirited fight as the Jets dumped the Calgary Flames 4-0 in NHL pre-season action at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“I think anytime you can (you want to) give back and do the little things right and help the team in any way possible,” said De Leo. “If I’m going to make the team, it’s not going to be big minutes at the start but I’m willing to do whatever they need.”

Winnipeg improved to 3-1-0 in exhibition play while Calgary dropped to 2-3-0.

Maurice was asked about he liked about Kosmachuk, De Leo and Lipon.

“Their progress from last year more than anything,” said Maurice. “… You can tell they’re stronger, they’re faster. More in tune to the pro game. And they came out and played like it was a real important game for them.”

The game was messy like many pre-season game are.

“These games are hard to assess,” said Maurice. “So we liked our start. It was a bit of a rugby scrum kinda with the puck. It never transitioned too quickly…

“I would have trouble describing that game during the regular season so I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time describing it.”

Maurice’s Jets, who host the Ottawa Senators tonight, still have 42 players in camp. Sorting out some of those roster spots be challenging.

“It’s the last chance to leave that impression that’ll… possibly get you into the block of last two (pre-season games) or leave here with a positive thought for when you do get your chance,” said Maurice. “They’ll still have to go to the (AHL’s Manitoba) Moose and they’ll have to perform well regardless of what they’ve done in camp.

“There’s a lot of bodies there competing for not a lot of jobs.”

The Jets only generated three shots in the first period and scored on two of them.

At 4:48, right-winger Kosmachuk finished off centre De Leo’s nifty rush and centring pass, banging the puck past goalie Chad Johnson to make it 1-0.

Rookie left-winger Patrik Laine nearly cashed in with his first pre-season goal late in the period, clanking a wicked one-timer off the far post while playing the point on the power play. Just 30 seconds later on the same man advantage, Jets defenceman Ben Chiarot cleaned up a loose puck to make it 2-0.

In the second period, Calgary generated the vast majority of scoring chances with Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec holding the Flames at bay. Then, at 8:54, De Leo struck again with a pass to a trailing Mark Stuart, who rifled a long shot past Johnson. It was Winnipeg’s sixth shot of the game.

The Jets added their sixth power-play goal in two games at 10:49 of the second when blue-liner Paul Postma’s blast found the net after Alex Burmistrov’s swooping feed.

Pavelec stands tall

Pavelec got his first pre-season action and saved his best work for the third period, robbing Lauri Korpikoski and Sam Bennett with splendid stops. Pavelec had some wild moments but was rock-solid when he needed to be. He finished with 31 saves. The Jets managed 24 shots on Johnson and Jon Gillies.

Three goaltenders on the roster — Michael Hutchinson, Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie — have also played one full game but Maurice wasn’t tipping his master plan with that situation.

“I’m giving you nothing on that one for a week,” Maurice said with a laugh.

Getting a long look

Forward Brandon Tanev and defenceman Josh Morrissey, both rookies, played their fourth game of the pre-season, the heaviest workload of any member of the team.

They are serious contenders for NHL jobs. Morrissey, a left shot, was paired with Ben Chiarot and was shifted to the right side. He impressed the boss.

“I like him on the right side,” said Maurice. “He did a really nice job of handling that. So, it was a fairly heavy forecheck. They got in on the D pretty quick. And, for me, he looked as comfortable on the right as he did on the left… That is a huge tool for him and it’s going to increase the amount of minutes he would play being able to play both sides.”

Walking wounded

Injured defenceman Tyler Myers and forwards Mathieu Perreault, Anthony Peluso and Ryan Olsen all skated Sunday morning and have been cleared for full contact.Two or more of those players could be in the lineup Monday night against the visiting Ottawa Senators.

Meanwhile, forwards Brendan Lemieux (lower body) and Shawn Matthias (upper body) are considered week-to-week.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14