Meltdown in Cowtown

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This article was published 21/11/2018 (2481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — They flew out of the gate and opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the game. Unfortunately for the Winnipeg Jets, it quickly went downhill from there.

The Calgary Flames stormed back with five consecutive goals before the first period was over, then appeared to put it on cruise control the rest of the way in a 6-3 victory at Scotiabank Saddledome.

“I think it was just embarrassing. That’s not the Winnipeg Jets. That’s not the way we want to play this game. It was bad. It was real bad. We can’t let that happen again,” said forward Patrik Laine.

Winnipeg had its five-game point streak snapped, falling to 12-6-2 on the season. Calgary’s third straight victory improved its record to 13-8-1.

Seemingly everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Jets after Brandon Tanev got them on the board with the quick tally.

There were blatant giveaways, missed assignments, uncharacteristically soft goaltending, players running into each other and even an own-goal of sorts off the skate of defenceman Tyler Myers, who truly had a night to forget.

“Obviously giving up five in the first doesn’t give you much of a chance,” said captain Blake Wheeler. “There was quite a bit that didn’t go our way tonight. Some of that was self-inflicted. Some of it just the puck wasn’t bouncing our way.”

Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck was pulled after giving up three goals on nine shots, the final one of the truly smelly variety. He was replaced by Laurent Brossoit, who stopped 14 of 16 shots directed his way.

By the time the Jets got to the dressing room in an attempt to regroup, it was too little, too late. Sure, they mounted a bit of a comeback as the Flames, seemingly tired from scoring at will, mostly sat back and let the Jets carry the play for the final 40 minutes.

But that opening frame will be remembered for a long time around these parts. On the eve of American Thanksgiving, this truly was a turkey.

“Just shower this one off and move on,” Wheeler said of the message inside the room.

Dillon Dube tied it just 2:07 into the game with his first NHL goal. Then Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk and Mark Jankowski scored in a span of 6:02 later in the period to really put this one to bed. Johnny Gaudreau put the icing on a terrific opening period by scoring with 47 seconds left.

Remarkably, this was the second straight game in which Calgary put up a five-spot in the first period. The Vegas Golden Knights were on the receiving end Monday night in a 7-2 defeat.

“We didn’t handle the movement very well and our feet were standing still. You know that’s not the way we play because the next period, it looked the way it was supposed to look. We had a tough period and we paid for it dearly,” said coach Paul Maurice.

“You’re going to have periods like that in the National Hockey League. It’s just so important you handle them right and I think we did. I liked it. It’s tough to say you liked anything after you give up that many goals but given the situation we’re in after one we handled that as right as you can. We got skating. We got playing. Tough when you give up five in the first, you’re not saying to anybody that you deserve to win a hockey game, I don’t think we did, but we handled it the way that we should.”

The Jets outshot the Flames 17-3 in the middle frame, which included getting three straight power plays. Laine converted at five-on-five in the final minute, courtesy of another great pass from Wheeler.

After going 18 games without an even-strength goal, Laine now has three in his past two games.

The Jets continued to push back in the final period. Wheeler rang an early shot off the crossbar, and then Laine scored his second of the night — and team-leading 13th of the season — with 13:43 left while on a power play.

Things got really interesting when Jets centre Bryan Little scored 30 seconds later. However, officials consulted and waved it off, ruling that defenceman Jacob Trouba had interfered with Flames goalie David Rittich by using a skate to trip the goalie while skating in front of the crease seconds earlier. Rittich fell to the ice and Little poked a loose puck past him. The Jets challenged the play, but the call was upheld following video review.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I’m honestly not really sure what the rule is there, if the crease matters or what it is. It was unintentional,” Trouba said of the play. “I thought he was (outside the crease) but I don’t know if that has any impact on the decision or what the ruling is. Just continue to play. We did a good job battling back and getting back to our game after the first period.”

Maurice was confused by the fact the referee originally signalled a goal, then changed his mind following a “team meeting” on the ice.

“For me, that’s enough indecision. It’s outside of the blue paint when it happens. When you’re trailing and you can make it 5-4, you’re going to run the risk (of a challenge),” said Maurice, who lost his time out as a result of the ruling.

“I think if the goaltender is out of the blue paint, you have the right to look at it and say, you know what, there was no intent for contact. It was incidental contact. If you’re outside the blue, we try to avoid (contact). (Trouba’s) head is turned up the ice, he’s trying to get back to the blue line. No, I don’t want it to be fair game on the goalies (outside the blue paint), don’t get me wrong. That’s not what I’m saying. That was situational. The ref called it a goal on the ice, then they changed their mind, so for me, there was some doubt there.”

Derek Ryan iced it with an empty-net goal with just under two minutes to play. The Jets outshot the Flames 14-9 in the third period and 40-26 overall. 

“I thought we battled back pretty hard,” said Trouba. “We were just getting out of the zone a little cleaner, making cleaner plays. They do a good job forechecking. They have good sticks and take away a lot of passing lanes. We skated a little more and just got back to how we play. When one guy gets going everybody kind of gets going and we feed off each other in that sense. It wasn’t really there in the first and we got back to it in the second.”

Winnipeg is now 1-1-0 on this four-game road trip, which continues Friday afternoon in Minnesota against the Wild, and Saturday evening in St. Louis against the Blues.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg