A tremendous team effort by the Jets in a 5-1 victory, one of their best of the season, limiting Vegas to 17 shots & giving the Jets a 1-0 series lead.
For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats click here to see the results from the game via Natural Stat Trick.
Notable:
After playing five playoff games for the Moose last season David Gustafsson is making his Jets playoff debut.
As was Morgan Barron who was also making his NHL playoff debut with the Jets tonight. He was really good for the Moose last season when he made his pro playoff debut. Had 4G 2A in five games.
Speaking of Barron he was pushed into Golden Knights goalie Laurent Brossoit’s skate and required 75 stitches to get it closed up. He returned in the 2nd period wearing a cage.
Last of the AHL graduates making their NHL playoff debut this evening is Dylan Samberg. He played five playoff games for the Moose last season. He’s certainly looked cool, calm and collected in his first taste of playoffs in the NHL.
After a great 1st period the Jets started the 2nd quickly scored two goals in 62 seconds starting with a Kyle Connor goal just 1:24 into the middle frame followed by a Pierre-Luc Dubois goal.
For Dubois it was his first playoff goal in eight games with Winnipeg. He moved from 21st on the all-time points list in playoffs to 17th tied with Jack Roslovic.
After Vegas cut the Winnipeg lead in half late in the 2nd, early in the 3rd it was Blake Wheeler with the ‘how you like me now’ goal to make it 3-1 for the Jets. That goal was big. Big.
Adam Lowry sealed the deal with an empty netter and then added another for good measure.
Winnipeg was excellent in the final frame (and the entire game) as they limited Vegas to just two shots in a game the Golden Knights trailed.
Multi Point Game:
Blake Wheeler 1G 2A
Adam Lowry 2G
Pierre-Luc Dubois 1G 1A
Nino Niederreiter 2A
Players media availability:
Coach media availability:
Highlights:
Illegal Curve Post-Game Show:
Up next:
The Jets are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 3 PM CDT. Start your day with the Morning Papers which will go live at 7 am tomorrow on illegalcurve.com and then check back for the Practice Report.
Post-game Podcast:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
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Recap of the game.
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TSN analyst Craig Button shares his thoughts.