Cagey backup earns big win

An extended stretch between starts didn’t deter Eric Comrie.

After watching Connor Hellebuyck start the previous eight games, the Winnipeg Jets backup did what he’s done with regularity: give his team a chance with his solid play.

Comrie was the best player on the ice and made 29 saves to propel the Jets to a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 14,082 at Canada Life Centre.

Comrie has allowed only seven goals during his past five starts, all of them victories.

“I mean, I just try and prepare every single day. Just be ready for when my name’s called upon,” said Comrie, who made his 21st start of the season and picked up his 11th win, both of which are career-highs. “It’s my job to be ready, my job to give this team a chance to win, and I take a lot of pride in that. I love this team. I want to be the best I can be for this team every single night.”

The Jets, who improved to 28-28-10, close out an eight-game homestand on Tuesday against the Nashville Predators.

Comrie revealed that he made a subtle change after the Jan. 1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs after a discussion with goalie coach Wade Flaherty, swapping out the bars in his goalie mask.

“I said, ‘I’ve got to do something different. Everything feels like it’s going wrong right now,’” said Comrie. “He goes, ‘try putting a white cage in the mask.’ Sure enough, I put a white cage in the mask, and it’s been good so far.”

No matter what he’s done to his equipment, Comrie’s willingness to put in the work between starts is what’s allowed him to be successful.

“It starts with preparation. It starts with what he does every day to prepare himself to play and give himself the best chance to succeed,” said Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury. “And just the way he works and the way he comes to the rink. He’s a true pro, and that allows him to have (games) like this.”

Comrie’s best save was a third period breakaway stop off Blues winger Jordan Kyrou.

“It happened a little quick. I wasn’t quite ready to be fully honest with you,” said Comrie. “I made a good save and just kind of reacted to it. And then after that, I was like, whew, I wasn’t ready for that. Thank goodness it hit me.”

It was a productive weekend for the Jets, who also earned a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

That moved them to 5-2 on the homestand and pulled them at least momentarily to within four points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference standings.

“This team is not giving up,” said Fleury. “We still feel that we have a good chance to make the playoffs. And, whatever it takes every night. I know (Sunday) probably wasn’t the prettiest but we’ll take the two points.”

Let’s take a closer look at happened in this one:

Slump buster

Fleury opened the scoring on Sunday, using his skating ability to jump up in the play to create an odd-man rush and fire a shot past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington.

For Fleury, it was his first goal since joining the Jets, snapping an 80-game drought that stretched back to his time with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Since that time, he’s come back from two freak injuries, one with the Lightning and another in January with the Jets.

“My son asks me every time I play, did you score? And I always say ‘no’. So I get to tell him, I scored,” said Fleury, who added an assist to give him two points. “I’m just happy my four-year-old is here. It was the first time he’s seen me score in person. I know he’s probably more excited than I am.”

With the Jets dealing with injuries on the back end to Neal Pionk and Colin Miller and after dealing Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn to the Buffalo Sabres, Fleury is back logging regular minutes on the third pairing.

“With all the injuries that have happened to him and all the injuries on our defence, we have needed him now,” said Arniel. “And now that he has come back healthy, it’s great to see he recovered as we weren’t sure how that was all going to play itself out. He has been playing really well. He is a great skater, and he has great mobility and he has filled in real well for us.

“To see him score, especially early on, that was a great shot and it looked like he’d been doing that his whole career.”

Jets forward Brad Lambert drew the primary assist on the play, which allowed him to record his first NHL helper of the season and his third in 15 games with the Jets, spread out over three seasons.

Birthday goal

Jets centre Mark Scheifele chipped the puck out of the defensive zone past Blues blue-liner Cam Fowler and pulled away on a breakaway, scoring on a backhand deke to extend the lead to 2-0.

Scheifele, who turned 33 on Sunday, is up to 31 goals this season, which leaves tied for the team lead with Kyle Connor, who scored in the third period.

Scheifele has 12 points in the past seven games, moving him to 82 for the season (which is five shy of his career high, set last season).

Those pre-season projections of Scheifele being a candidate for regression have proven to be wildly inaccurate.

The key play

Kyle Connor’s breakaway goal on a delayed penalty call restored a two-goal cushion at 11:53 of the third period and proved to be the game-winner.

The three stars

Eric Comrie, Jets, The battling backup finished with 29 saves.

Morgan Barron, Jets, Chipped in a pair of assists.

Haydn Fleury, Jets, Recorded his first goal and assist of the season.

Extra, extra

By drawing a pair of assists, Jets forward Morgan Barron set a career high for points (22) and he achieved the feat in 57 games (13 fewer than in 2022-23). He’s currently one goal shy of equalling his career high in that category (11).

Defenceman Ville Heinola was the lone healthy scratch for the Jets.

The Jets primary affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, closed out a road trip with a 4-2 win over the Calgary Wranglers on Sunday. Defenceman Dylan Anhorn broke a 2-2 tie with 5:37 to go in the third period to help the Moose improve to 28-21-5-1. Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Isaak Phillips and David Gustafsson also scored for the Moose, who got 43 saves from Thomas Milic. The Moose open a four-game homestand on Wednesday with a 10:30 a.m. puck drop against the Milwaukee Admirals.

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