DeMelo the hero on special night

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This article was published 16/01/2025 (238 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dylan DeMelo celebrated a milestone game in dramatic fashion.

The Winnipeg Jets defenceman — who is much more accustomed to preventing goals than scoring them — wired a seeing-eye wrist shot past Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord with 27 seconds left in regulation to give his team a 2-1 victory Thursday night at Canada Life Centre.

It was the 19th goal of DeMelo’s career, coming in his 600th regular-season game, and sent the 13,959 fans in attendance into a frenzy.

“That was awesome. Obviously I’m a guy that doesn’t score a lot,” DeMelo said. “To score the game-winner just kinds of puts the cherry on top and to get the win. It was a really special night and a night I’ll definitely remember.”

Winnipeg improves to 31-12-3, including 4-1-2 on this season-long eight-game homestand, to remain alone on top of the Western Conference in both points and winning percentage. Seattle, which is desperately trying to stay in the wild-card playoff picture, falls to 19-24-3 after suffering the heartbreaking loss in what was the last stop of a five-game road trip.

To be clear, the Jets were the better team in this one and deserved the two points, outshooting the Kraken 36-19 (with shot attempts 72-49). However, it looked like it was going overtime until DeMelo’s timely and very memorable goal.

“In our initial huddle, guys were going nuts. Profanities and all that fun stuff,” DeMelo said of the on-ice celebration that ensued.

“Then you come to the bench and just see everybody’s face just lighting up. So that was great. But then there’s 30 seconds and we need to get right back into it to get the win. Come into the room and everybody is all jacked up. We’ve got a special group. Everybody makes you feel special, no matter your role here. Like I said, it was a special night.”

YOU GOTTA BE GOOD TO BE LUCKY

With well under a minute left in the 1-1 game, Kraken defenceman Adam Larsson had the puck on his stick in his own zone and tried a routine bank off the glass which would have sent play back into the neutral zone. However, an odd bounce sent it right on to the stick of Nikolaj Ehlers, who quickly turned and found a wide-open DeMelo.

“A great bounce off the boards and I saw it coming out, right into the middle and tried to get my stick on it,” is how Ehlers described it. “And saw the forward bite down on me, and Smoky came in in a pretty good position. Lows (Adam Lowry) and Al (Iafallo) going to the net, creating some traffic, and a great shot.”

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, according to DeMelo’s teammates.

“Plays the right way, every single game. Funny guy off the ice. Super-nice guy, who wants to win as bad as everyone else in here,” said Ehlers. “And it’s a family. It’s something special. I don’t know if you guys will see the reaction we had in here after when he came in, but that’s the fun part. Special.”

ECONOMIC BOOM

Jets assistant coach Davis Payne, who was brought in last summer to re-tool a wildly inconsistent power play, described the NHL’s No. 1 unit this year as “recession-proof” while speaking with reporters earlier this year. The idea, he explained, is to always have “an answer to create momentum.”

That was certainly the case Thursday. After a bit of a sleepy opening period which saw the home team fall behind 1-0 off a Matty Beniers goal, the Jets drew a pair of man advantages in the middle frame and completely tilted the ice in their favour.

The first one led to the game-tying goal off the stick of Mark Scheifele, who finished off a dizzying sequence of dazzling puck movement with his team-leading 27th of the year. Every player on the ice had at least a touch, and the Kraken were powerless to prevent the inevitable.

Although they were unable to convert on their second chance, the Jets had several more quality looks and went on to outshoot the Kraken 20-8 in the second stanza, then carried that over into the third period as well.

Connor Hellebuyck took care of the rest, with his biggest stop of the night coming off an Andre Burakovsky breakaway late in the second period. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner finished with 18 saves and is now 28-6-2 on the year with a 1.97 goals-against-average and .929 save-percentage. All of those numbers are tops in the league.

SECOND LINE SHINES

Not only were they responsible for the winning goal, but the new-look second line of Lowry, Ehlers and Iafallo had a dominant performance. They combined for 14 shots on goal (Iafallo with seven, Ehlers with six and Lowry with one) and significantly tilted the ice every time they were on it.

According to Natural Stat Trick, shot attempts were 27-11 in Winnipeg’s favour with that trio doing their thing. (To put that in perspective, the top line of Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi were out-chanced 19-7 against the Kraken).

“I liked it a lot, honestly. Most of the last 40 we dominated, didn’t give them much,” said Ehlers.

“And what we did give them was turnovers off a high play in the O-zone… so obviously that’s something that when you’re rolling like you are you don’t want to give them anything. You don’t want to give them a breath of fresh air and that’s something that I personally and we can do a little bit better, of just keep jamming it down their throat.”

KEY PLAY

Dylan DeMelo’s timely and very memorable goal was the difference.

“I’m sure he’ll remember that one. That’s awesome,” said head coach Scott Arniel. “Big game like that, and to finish it like that, top-shelf, it’s nice to see”

THREE STARS

1. Jets Dylan DeMelo: Game-winning goal.
2. Kraken Joey Daccord: 34 saves.
3. Jets Alex Iafallo: 7 shots on goal.

EXTRA, EXTRA

For the first time all year, the Jets technically had no healthy scratches. Forward Vlad Namestnikov and defenceman Colin Miller are both on the active roster and missed their third and fifth straight games respectively with injuries. Defenceman Haydn Fleury and forward Mason Appleton remain on injured reserved.

Miller and Fleury were both full participants in the morning skate and could be cleared to return as early as Saturday. Namestnikov and Appleton both took a twirl on their own Thursday and could join the Jets at practice in non-contact jerseys as early as Friday.

Former Jets forward Brandon Tanev missed Thursday’s game for the Kraken with an undisclosed injury.

The Jets will wrap up this healthy batch of home cooking by hosting the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca