Jets earn third-straight victory in 3-2 win over faltering Flames

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This article was published 27/03/2021 (1674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets made things look relatively easy in Calgary on Friday night — until they weren’t.

Operating within an optimal defensive structure, the Jets shut down the Flames for about 47 minutes while pumping in a couple of goals of their own.

But only after the visitors resisted a frantic push by the Flames late in the third period were two points socked away as the Jets held on for a 3-2 triumph at Scotiabank Saddledome

The Jets killed off a six-on-four situation with Paul Stastny in the box serving a tripping penalty and Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom on the bench for an extra attacker.

The reliance of the club’s battle-tested penalty-killing unit — including trusty netminder Connor Hellebuyck — was not lost on Jets’ captain Blake Wheeler in his post-game chat with reporters.

“I mean we’ve got a lot of confidence in our goaltender first and foremost. And a lot of confidence in the guys on the ice. It’s never ideal to go down six on four, but the four guys on the ice did an outstanding job,” said Wheeler, who notched his 10th goal of the year to open the scoring.

The four guys? Blue-liners Dylan DeMelo and Derek Forbort, and forwards Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp.

“It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s one of those things where it may happen again at a crucial moment, so it was nice to get the job done,” added Wheeler.

Calgary’s talented, true-to-form disturber Matthew Tkachuk had scored from near the blue paint, his usual workspace, with just 1:59 left in regulation time and Markstrom pulled to make it a one-goal game. On the faceoff at centre ice he was tripped up by Stastny, who slinked to the box with his tail between his legs, hoping for the PK to save his bacon.

“That was a long 1:52 that I was in the box? Something like that? Our PK did a great job there, not really giving up much,” said Stastny, who scored a crucial third-period goal to give Winnipeg a 3-1 lead, eight minutes after Milan Lucic trimmed the gap to one.

“The one chance they had, I think (Hellebuyck) did a good job holding that leg down. Copper and Lows had great stick pressure and Lows had the big face-off there to clinch it. The PK, in a game like that, special teams is the difference. It showed there in the end.”

The Jets have now won three straight, upping their record to 21-11-2 and tying the idle Toronto Maple Leafs for the lead in the North Division.

Winnipeg, which led 1-0 and 2-0 at the period breaks, is 12-1-2 when ahead after 40 minutes.

The Flames (15-17-3) have lost four straight but can redeem themselves Saturday night when the squads reconnect, with a 9 p.m. (CT) start. Calgary also hosts Winnipeg on Monday.

Jets refused to allow the Flames access to the slot at five on five, and the hosts couldn’t establish an effective cycle to generate chances down low.

Calgary’s best chance through 40 minutes came late in the second when blue-liner Noah Hanifin clanked a shot off the crossbar.

“I thought we were collapsed in our own end at the right times, and aggressive in our own end at the right times. It was a little like our penalty kill. Really competitive in some puck handles within 10 feet of the net, did a really good job with that,” said head coach Paul Maurice.

“I think our forwards, for the most part, did a nice job of not leaving our (defence) alone. We did stretch at the right time, too, and we ended up with a goal because of it. Our forwards and our (defence) are working well together in terms of their spacing in their end.”

The stretch pass came courtesy of Tucker Poolman, who sent Kyle Connor streaking on a breakaway early in the middle frame.

Connor, accentuating a nifty set of hands that has already produced a trio of 30-goal campaigns in his young career, fired on Markstrom and then popped home his own rebound while flying by the crease.

Connor’s team-leading 17th tally — highlighted by Poolman’s first point in 20 contests this season — upped the visitors’ lead to 2-0.

The Jets’ first power-play unit accounted for Wheeler’s first-period tally, his 10th, and Stastny’s third-period marker, his 11th.

Stastny admitted there’s a friendly battle between the Scheifele-led top group and the second power-play crew, led by Pierre-Luc Dubois with dynamic Nikolaj Ehlers aboard.

Each outfit has six goals with the man-advantage in the month of March.

“It’s good to have internal competition. I think we were pissed off at ourselves. At least our unit was, when I say ourselves, our unit. Because we weren’t doing anything in the last four or five games. I think it was frustrating. We weren’t even creating momentum and then the other unit was scoring which was huge for us,” Stastny said.

“It’s a healthy competition and I think you need that. Because defending us, I think, is different too. Because two different units, two different looks. Whether it’s a lefty on top, a righty on top. As an opposing team, it’s difficult because you have to prepare for both. There’s probably some nights where the other unit should probably start first. We’re not going to let them start first, we don’t want them to (laughs). But no, like I said, I think it’s that good, healthy competition.”

Calgary’s first strike came on its own power play, a junkie one credited to big Lucic after the puck caromed in off Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, at 6:52 of the third period.

But Lucic’s positive contributions stopped there.

Earlier in the period, Neal Pionk blew Johnny Gaudreau apart with a pulverizing hit. Lucic tried to get some payback with just under eight minutes left in the game but took a senseless approach, hammering Mason Appleton into the boards from behind and then punching Pionk straight in the face.

The actions of the under-performing winger, who has just 15 goals in 103 games over two seasons in Calgary, cost the club bigtime. He was assessed a pair of minor penalties and then Markstrom took a delay-of-game penalty, handing Winnipeg a 5-on-3 situation that led to Stastny’s goal.

Save for two tough outings in Edmonton, there’s a thoroughness to the Jets as a season-long road trip winds down. Hellebuyck stopped 25 of 27 shots Friday — another routine performance — team defence is sound and key offensive contributors are getting the job done.

“Yeah, I mean that’s the template, right?” said Maurice. “When they’ve got the puck, you want to be a really good defensive team. You hope you have the puck more than they do, but there are nights against really good offensive teams that can control the puck, like Toronto, you just have to be a good defensive team and make the most of your offence. And then there’s some nights maybe you feel you have the offensive advantage and you’d like to make plays.

“But you want to be able to seamlessly bounce back and forth between those two and not try to impose your offensive game necessarily on teams and lose the defensive part of your game. You don’t want to be just one kind of team, you want to be able to if the other team’s got it going that night, they’re feeling it, they’re snapping it around, that you can weather that game, that you can go in and play well enough defensively and be patient with it.

“Then there’s nights where you can impose your will a little bit and you want to make sure you have the confidence to put the pedal down.”

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell