Jets start strong, go down in Flames

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This article was published 01/02/2021 (1734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A point gained, or a point lost? Depends on your perspective, perhaps. But the Winnipeg Jets ultimately came up on the short end of the hockey stick Monday night in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames at Bell MTS Place.

Winnipeg raced out to an early 2-0 lead, then surrendered three straight goals as they seemingly held on for dear life only to tie it up with just under two minutes to play. After a back-and-forth overtime session, the visitors got the better of them in the breakaway contest.

The Jets are now 5-3-1 on the year, while the Flames improve to 4-3-1.

“A point’s a point,” said Jets forward Kyle Connor. “We knew they were going to push back in the second and they did and we were on our heels a bit. Came out pretty strong at the start of the third and they kind of turned it up a notch. It was kind of a roller-coaster in that third. It was obviously great to tie it up, lots of chances both ways.”

Johnny Gaudreau had the deciding goal in the shootout, while Sean Monahan also scored. Connor had Winnipeg’s only tally, with Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Mathieu Perreault all coming up short.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice was asked following the game why he left Nikolaj Ehlers on the bench. The speedy winger would seem to have been a natural choice over veterans like Wheeler and Perreault. 

“We didn’t have anybody left who had scored an NHL goal in a shootout,” said Maurice. Indeed, Ehlers is 0-for-4 in his career, although he does have a breakaway goal on his resumé. 

Winnipeg was looking for a stronger start, especially after a lacklustre showing on Saturday night in a 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. And they got it courtesy of the power play, with Connor connecting twice in the opening frame while his team had the man advantage.

His first shot was a bar-down bullet following a terrific seam pass from Scheifele just 4:31 into the game. The second was a one-timer off a Josh Morrissey feed at 13:46.

So far, so good. But a solid opening 20 minutes was quickly undone when Calgary defenceman Chris Tanev fired a shot from his own blue line that bounced its way past Connor Hellebuyck just seven seconds into the middle frame. Look for that one on highlight packages for years to come.

“That was an absolute fluke. It’s not a bad goal. It’s a fluke. It’s one of those ones you just rarely see, except every goalie’s got one of those,” said Maurice.

It seemed to shift momentum to the Flames, as they were the much stronger team for the duration of the game. Gaudreau tied it up at 6:54 of the third on a beautiful back-door tap-in. And then Andrew Mangiapane put Calgary ahead at 13:45 when he finished off a furious offensive zone press in which the Jets simply couldn’t get out of their own end.

Only a handful of incredible Hellebuyck saves had given the Jets a fighting chance at that point.

“I don’t think they were going to be bragging about their first period. So you knew they were going to get a bit of a pushback there. It certainly didn’t affect Connor. He was just outstanding after that,” Maurice said when asked if his team sagged after the ugly goal.

“I don’t think it did. Not with that much time on the clock. We’re responsible for our play.”

Just when it looked like they were going to let this one completely get away from them, Scheifele deflected a Neal Pionk point shot at 18:10 with Hellebuyck on the bench for an extra attacker.

“Obviously, we let them get back in, we let them get the lead, which we didn’t want to have. But obviously a big point there and too bad we couldn’t have ended it in overtime or the shootout,” said Scheifele.

He actually had the best chance to win it, following a gorgeous give and go with Connor in which he fired high over an apparent empty net. 

“I just made a bad shot. I probably had a little more time than I thought but it was a great pass by KC and I gotta capitalize on those. So, that’s on me. Wish I would have ended it there, for sure,” he said. 

Hellebuyck was irate after the loss, smashing his stick over the crossbar in frustration. He would have become the franchise’s all-time winningest goaltender with a victory, as he’s currently tied with Ondrej Pavelec. 

Jets forward Adam Lowry said he’s not worried about the inconsistency in his team’s game early in the season, often from one period to another. Monday was only the second time in nine contests the Jets had a lead heading into the third period, and this one didn’t last very long.

“I don’t think it’s too concerning. There are areas of your game you can clean up and they’ve got highly skilled players. They’re going to generate their chances. Sometimes the other team is going to buzz around and for us, Helly stood on his head and made some huge saves for us. We’re going to need that at certain times this year,” said Lowry.

“I think after that five or seven minutes of them getting a lot of chances and them taking the lead, we kind of got back to our game. We had some good zone pressure and some good shifts in the offensive zone and we were able to tie it up late. So that’s just as important. You stick with it, sometimes you’re not going to have your best effort defensively or best couple of shifts strung together. It’s how you respond. I thought we responded pretty well.”

The two teams are right back at it tonight, the second of three straight meetings this week. They’ll play one more time in Winnipeg on Thursday, before another game next Tuesday in Calgary.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg