Winnipeg wins a wild one

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This article was published 26/01/2021 (1685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Those crazy comeback kids did it again.

Down a couple goals early and facing yet another third-period deficit, the never-say-die Winnipeg Jets had the Edmonton Oilers right where they wanted them Tuesday night at Bell MTS Place.

The end result was a wild 6-4 victory that improves Winnipeg’s record to 5-2-0 on the young season. Four of those wins have come in games the Jets fell behind at some point, including three where they trailed entering the final 20 minutes. Edmonton falls to 3-5-0.

Although this one followed a familiar script for Winnipeg, it involved some unlikely characters. The red-hot Andrew Copp, a versatile checking forward playing up in the lineup following the injury and subsequent trade of Patrik Laine, had a career night with two goals and two assists. And shutdown centre Adam Lowry continued his torrid start to the season with the game-winning goal and two helpers.

For all the talk of Winnipeg’s talented top-six forwards — Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, Paul Stastny and, until this past weekend, Laine, who was dealt for Pierre-Luc Dubois — perhaps it’s time that number got expanded to a superb seven or elite eight.

“I try not to pay too much attention to the players that get a lot of the star status. We’re worried about the next game, the next shift kind of thing. But with that said, I do think that we have some players on our team that are really underrated across the league and I think you’re seeing Nikky (Ehlers) is obviously a good example of that. Adam Lowry has had a great start to the season,” said Copp.

“I can’t really speak to whether it’s because that we’re in Winnipeg that guys are getting underrated or if it’s just we do have such high-end talent with our forward group that the middle tier maybe gets overlooked.”

Copp (four goals, five assists) and Lowry (four goals, three assists) are providing the kind of secondary scoring that can turn good hockey teams into great ones. Their timing couldn’t be better, either, for both the team and their own cause. Lowry will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, while Copp is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights

It was especially big on a night like this, when the top trio of Scheifele, Wheeler and Connor had a rough ride against the Oilers as they were frequently matched up against Connor McDavid, who had a goal and assist to take over the NHL scoring lead.

Fortunately for the Jets, Copp’s new-look second line was dominant. Ehlers shook off a first-period injury scare in which he took a skate to the stomach by matching a career-best with four points (one goal, three assists), while Stastny had a goal and an assist. Dubois is likely headed for that line once he’s out of 14-day quarantine and able to play, but it’s hard to imagine wanting to separate those three right now the way they’re clicking.

“I feel really good, which is to me the most important thing. Going out there and playing with Stas and Copper right now, they’re amazing players. They’re making it so much easier for me to keep using my speed. We’re able to use our strengths as much as possible and keep helping each other out,” said Ehlers, who leads the Jets in scoring with 11 points (five goals, six assists).

This victory was big on multiple levels. For one, it concluded a gruelling stretch in which the Jets played six games in nine nights, going 4-2-0 in that span. It also came following Sunday’s heartbreaker, in which Edmonton scored with 0.7 seconds left in the third-period to snap a 3-3 tie and steal two points. The Jets nearly pulled off a comeback in that one, too, erasing a third-period deficit and even taking the lead at one point.

“I think it’s the highs and lows of professional sport. You know, it seems like sometimes you have an emotional letdown the next game,” said Lowry.

That appeared to be the case early Tuesday. Leon Draisaitl, who scored that buzzer-beater, picked up where he left off by lighting the lamp just 108 seconds into the opening frame with his team on an early power play.

After Copp tied it up a few minutes later, Adam Larsson and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, also on the power play, gave the visitors a 3-1 lead. Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was fighting the puck early and often, giving up three goals on just six shots, and you wondered if head coach Paul Maurice might be getting the hook out for the reigning Vezina Trophy winner.

Mathieu Perreault, skating on the third line with Lowry and Mason Appleton, gave the Jets a bit of life back with a goal later in the frame, his first point of the season.

After a fast-paced but scoreless second period — the teams played nearly eight minutes at one point without a whistle — the stage was set for another late-game rally.

“So you know going into the third period there is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel where you go six in nine and you’re beat up and you’re sore. And they’ve played well enough that they feel they can earn a win, right?” said Maurice.

“They haven’t gone on a run of bad games and they can’t score. So there’s a little bit of enthusiasm, ‘Let’s push as hard as we can,’ and the first one goes, now you’re revisiting something that’s happened on your bench a bunch of times here and it feels good. They feel like they got their teeth into them now and we’re good. So there’s a real positive vibe on that bench. When the first one goes in, the guys are feeling pretty strong about how the rest of the period is going to go.”

That first one went to Ehlers, at 3:19, to tie it 3-3. The line connected again at 5:26, with Stastny giving Winnipeg its first lead of the night. Lowry made it 5-3 at 6:46 as the floodgates were now wide open, with the Oilers on their heels.

McDavid brought Edmonton back within one at 18:10 on an incredible play where he turned Scheifele inside-out, then wired a shot past Hellebuyck. But Copp sealed it at 19:08 with an empty-netter. 

“It was a bit of a tough start for us tonight. The first period wasn’t our best but we regrouped. We’ve got a lot of belief in our room and in the firepower we have. We have great leadership and I think that showed. In the second period we really started to play the game that makes us successful. We were hard on pucks and we had a lot of those extended zone times where we weren’t scoring but generating a lot of chances,” said Lowry.

“Those seem to take a toll on the other team as the game wears on. I think in the third period you saw that and we were able to make things work.”

The Jets will enjoy a day away from the rink today, then have two practice days before the Vancouver Canucks come to town for a Saturday night visit.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg