Jets surge back to down Ducks

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This article was published 10/12/2023 (667 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ANAHEIM — Some wins are more special than others. And this one, on Sunday night against the Anaheim Ducks, certainly fits the bill.

After losing top scorer Kyle Connor to what appeared to be a significant knee injury, the Jets fell behind 2-0 early in the third period. Rather than fold up shop, they stormed back with four straight goals to take a 4-2 victory.

“Gutsy,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele. “When you see your guy go down like that you want to win the game for him. So that was a lot of good effort by a lot of players in our team tonight.”

After Nino Niederreiter and Morgan Barron got the game back on even terms, Gabe Vilardi picked a perfect time to score his first goal as a member of the Jets, tipping home the winner with just 1:42 left in regulation.

“Definitely some relief to that, I think. I put a lot of pressure on myself, so it’s nice to get that one,” said Vilardi, who missed 18 games with a knee injury and is still getting back up to speed after returning five games ago.

Scheifele then added an empty-netter to seal the victory.

“Big goal in a big time,” Scheifele said of Vilardi. “So it was huge for the team and it was big for him too.”

Winnipeg now sits alone on top of the Central Division in terms of winning percentage at 16-8-2. Anaheim falls to 10-17-0.

“It means we’re a good team,” Viardi said of the accomplishment. “But we’ve got to keep going.”

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1) The injury: The sight of Connor in agony on the ice, grabbing his right leg, was a tough one.

Connor was taken out by Ducks forward Ryan Strome, who appeared to stick his knee out on the play. Scheifele immediately came to his fallen teammate’s defence, dropping the gloves with Strome (and absorbing several punches in the process).

“You don’t touch any of our guys especially like that,” said Scheifele. “Definitely didn’t like the hit and to see KC down like that, he doesn’t wince like that very often and to see him go down like that you have to get in there. We know that every guy in this room would do that for each and every one of us.”

Ultimately, Connor needed to be helped off by Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey, putting no weight on his leg.

Officials called a five-minute major and game misconduct, which was upheld on video review. There’s a good chance Strome gets a call on Monday from the NHL’s department of player safety.

Not surprisingly, the Jets quickly ruled Connor out for the remainder of the game. The bigger, more concerning question is how many others he might miss. Connor is off to a sizzling offensive start, with a team-leading 17 goals and 28 points so far.

Jets coach Rick Bowness didn’t have much of an update following the game, saying further evaluation will take place on Monday.

“Listen, there’s no other way of looking at it. You hope it’s suspendable,” he said. “But the referees made the right call. Five-minute major and a game misconduct and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

2) The power play: Winnipeg had gone 0-for-2 in the first period, and now the Strome major represented a major opportunity to grab the lead. However, the resulting five minutes could best be described as listless, with very little in the way of opportunities.

It didn’t help, of course, that the club’s two biggest offensive weapons in Connor (injured) and Scheifele (sin bin) werern’t able to partake, and that the power play personnel had to be severely improvised as a result.

“It’s rough,” said Scheifele. “You know you see a guy go down like that in the second period you could tell we were in a mellow mood. Not a whole lot was happening.”

Ultimately, Winnipeg went 0-for-5 on the night.

3) The penalty kill: After getting the first nine minutes of power play time, you knew the next penalty or two would likely go against the Jets. That’s NHL game management 101.

Sure enough, Morrissey was whistled for a dubious tripping call, which the team killed, and that was followed shortly after by a Neal Pionk holding-the-stick infraction. That one would come back to bite them.

Ducks forward Alex Killorn got multiple whacks at a loose puck, finally sweeping it past Connor Hellebuyck at 16:07 of the second to give the home team a 1-0 lead.

4) The comeback: Alex Iafallo hit the crossbar in the opening minute of the third period, and Adam Henrique came right back down the ice and beat Hellebuyck with a wrist shot to make it 2-0.

It felt like that might be game over.

But Niederreiter converted a beautiful feed from Vlad Namestnikov at 1:58 of the final frame — 43 seconds after Henrique’s tally — and suddenly the Jets were back in it.

Then, a strange one, as Morrissey’s shot was blocked by an Anaheim defender, but Barron knocked home the loose puck past a surprised, screen John Gibson at 5:55 to make it 2-2.

“That’s how we play. It was a low-event game for the most part. The best chances came off the greasiness and both teams throwing pucks to the net,” said Bowness.

“When you’re in that type of game, you’ve got to find a way to get pucks in there and get in there. LIke what we talked about after the second period, making sure that if there’s rebounds, you can’t be right on top of the goalie. You’ve got to be back a little bit to give yourself some space. Give players credit, because that’s what they did.”

Vilardi added to the grease factor when he went to the front of the net and got his stick on a Morrissey shot with the clock ticking towards overtime. Just like that, the comeback was complete.

“That’s what good teams do,” said Vilardi. “It’s a sign that you’ve got to keep going. We had all of those power plays and nothing was going. A lot of teams could just hang their heads when they score. We kept battling and battling. We got some greasy goals and that’s what it takes to win these types of games.”

5) The return: Just because they managed to go 3-0-0 during his absence doesn’t mean Namestnikov wasn’t missed. The versatile forward can fill many roles.

His return on Sunday from a lower-body injury had a domino effect on the lineup. First, Namestnikov bumped Iafallo off the second line as he slotted in at centre between Vilardi and Cole Perfetti. Iafallo moved down to the fourth line, knocking Axel Jonsson-Fjallby out of the lineup.

Bowness wasn’t thrilled with the Vilardi-Perfetti-Iafallo line in Thursday’s win over Colorado, so it’s not surprising that’s the trio targeted for change.

However, everything got thrown into the blender once Connor got hurt. Iafallo moved up to play with Scheifele and Connor, while a rotating cast of players rotated on a makeshift fourth line with Barron and David Gustafsson.

6) The rest: Winnipeg extended an impressive streak, as Sunday represented the 16th straight game where they’ve surrendered three or less goals (they’ve gone 12-4-0 in that time).

Hellebuyck finished with 25 saves on 27 shots, while Gibson stopped 27 of 30 pucks that came his way.

Defencemen Declan Chisholm and Nate Schmidt were both healthy scratches, along with Jonsson-Fjallby.

The Jets flew to San Jose following the game, where they’ll enjoy a day away from the rink Monday ahead of Tuesday’s showdown with the Sharks.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg