Jets fall to Flames 3-2 in Dubois’ debut

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This article was published 09/02/2021 (1672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All of the talk coming in was about Pierre-Luc Dubois making his long-awaited Winnipeg Jets debut. But the Calgary Flames crashed the party Tuesday night, scoring a pivotal power play goal with just under two minutes to play to snatch a 3-2 victory at Scotiabank Saddledome.

With defenceman Nathan Beaulieu in the sin bin for an ill-timed high-sticking infraction on Johnny Gaudreau during a brief scrum, Elias Lindholm tipped a Rasmus Andersson point shot past Connor Hellebuyck at 18:18 of the third period. 

“It’s a tough way to lose the game. Nobody’s going to be in a good mood (Tuesday night). It’ll be a quiet plane ride (Wednesday),” said Jets coach Paul Maurice, who had no issues with the quality of the penalty call.

Winnipeg falls to 7-4-1, with two of those defeats coming in games that seemed destined for overtime. You’ll recall the Edmonton Oilers grabbed two points last month by scoring with 0.7 seconds left in regulation. Calgary improves to 6-5-1.

Maurice said he’s not concerned this latest late-game loss will lead to an emotional sag.

“I’m not particularly worried about it with this group. They handle it right, they come back to the rink, they understand it. They have a pretty solid understanding of the style of game we need to play and they’ve adhered to it,” he said.

Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves for the win, while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 pucks.

This marked the first Jets game for Dubois, who came to Winnipeg in the blockbuster traded with Columbus that sent Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic the other way. The big, speedy, skilled 22-year-old looked a tad rusty in the opening frame, not to mention tentative, which is to be expected for a guy who just spent two weeks in quarantine, and hasn’t played an NHL game in nearly three weeks.

But he showed flashes of his varied talents as the game went on, especially in back-to-back-to-back strong second period shifts. In one, he turned on the boosters and nearly earned himself a breakaway after taking the puck at his own blue-line. The next shift, he had a great give-and-go with linemate Kyle Connor which set up a decent scoring chance.

Dubois ended up playing 20 shifts for 13:10. He had no shot attempts, threw one hit, went 3-for-9 in the faceoff circle and was a minus-one. 

“First game in 20-something days. I think the legs, the hands, the head, you’re trying to get everything back. I feel like as the game went on I was getting some things back, but I can play a lot better than that,” said Dubois.

The first period was a scoreless, rather tepid affair, with the teams looking like they were meeting for the first time all year — and not the fourth time in just over a week. Calgary took the opener last Monday at Bell MTS Place in a shootout, while Winnipeg scored regulation victories on Tuesday and Thursday. 

But the floodgates opened in an exciting, back-and-forth middle frame, with plenty of skill on display.

Nikolaj Ehlers got things started when he wired a wrist shot past Markstrom 3:23 into the second period. Winnipeg was on the power play, with Sean Monahan in the box for hooking Kyle Connor. Neal Pionk and Andrew Copp had the assists.

The lead was relatively short-lived, as Andrew Mangiapane took advantage of a bouncing puck and swept it by Hellebuyck at 5:31.

Calgary took the lead at 13:34 when Byron Froese, the 29-year-old journeyman forward from Winkler who has spent much of his career in the minors, scored his first NHL goal since the 2017-18 season, deftly tipping a Juuso Välimäki point shot past Hellebuyck.

But back came the Jets, courtesy of Ehlers once again. He finished off a nifty passing play with linemates Copp and Mark Scheifele at 15:45 for his team-leading eighth of the young season.

“He’s gifted. We’re trying to put him in situations where he’s going to be successful,” said Copp. “He’s got all the tools. If we can continue to get better as a line, find that rhythm as a line, I think we can be pretty dangerous.”

There wasn’t a whole lot happening in the third period, with both teams content to play it safe and at least ensure a point. But then came the late Winnipeg penalty which proved costly. 

“I thought we played a pretty good game. I don’t think we were clicking on all cylinders by any means, but they’re a good team, it was a tight game. Just kind of one bounce one way or the other at the end. We’ll bounce back. Tough way to lose, but I don’t want that to distract from who we can be in the good spurts in the game and what we think we’re building towards,” said Copp.

The debut of Dubois gave Maurice the most balanced four lines he’s had during his tenure in Winnipeg. He did some in-game mixing and matching, however. Mason Appleton moved up to play with Connor and Dubois early in the second period, while Trevor Lewis dropped down to play with Adam Lowry and Mathieu Perreault.

Then, in the third period with the score tied, Lowry moved up to take a couple shifts with Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny, bumping Kristian Vesalainen down.

“Hopefully we can get into a good rythem here, get some practices in and get used to how this bench is going to get run,” said Copp

The Jets returned home following the game, and will now get ready for a pair of tilts against the sad-sack Ottawa Senators starting Thursday night at Bell MTS Place and concluding Saturday afternoon. Then it’s back out west for a four-game trip through Edmonton and Vancouver.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg