Recap:
A somewhat disjointed opening frame as the Jets took it to the Golden Knights to open this first ever contest at Bell MTS Place for Vegas. Winnipeg held a 9-1 edge in shots and were up 1-0 courtesy of Tyler Myers who blasted it home on the power play with Ehlers and Little drawing the assists. Winnipegger Cody Eakin batted it out of the air and tied the game at one. The Golden Knights actually ended the opening frame with the edge in shots and a 2-1 lead as William Karlsson gave the visitors the lead with just over three minutes remaining.
The Golden Knights thought they had taken a 3-1 lead but the Jets successfully challenged for offside and it remained a one goal lead for the visitors. That proved big as none other than Matt Hendricks, who had taken a skate blade to the face earlier in the period, evened the game. He snipped home a beauty upstairs after Mathieu Perreault (who else) got him the puck.
Jets began the final frame on the power play and they made the Golden Knights pay when Kyle Connor got his eighth of the season to give Winnipeg a 3-2 edge. This was followed by Patrik “I’m confident again” Laine getting his 12th (tying Scheifele for the team lead) on the power play to make it 4-2. Shortly thereafter Laine made a deft pass to Nikolaj Ehlers who went with the wraparound to make it 5-2. Eric Haula got the visitors within two as he beat Connor Hellebuyck upstairs to make it 5-3. Mark Scheifele then scored his team leading 13th to make it a 6-3 game but the Golden Knights wouldn’t go away. They made it 6-4 with a few minutes remaining. However with 1:08 left in the period Kyle Connor’s second goal of the game made it 7-4.
The Jets are now 16-6-4 on the season which has them first in the Western Conference. Connor Hellebuyck is now 14-2-3 on the season.
For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats here are the results from tonight’s game via Natural Stat Trick.
Notable:
– Patrik Laine had 1G 2A
– Blake Wheeler had 3A
– Mark Scheifele had 1G 2A
– Kyle Connor had 2G
– Nikolaj Ehlers had 1G 1A
– Tyler Myers had 2A
– Mark Scheifele is tied for fourth in the NHL scoring race with 32 points (13G 19A)
– Blake Wheeler is tied for seventh in the NHL scoring race with 31 points (6G 25A)
Jets audio:
Blake Wheeler
Patrik Laine
Matt Hendricks
Coach Maurice: On whether Laine gets a “spark” from calling himself out? Play of Matt Hendricks. What did he see on the overturned goal and how much impact it had on the game? On how team approaches success. On where the 2nd line is now. On players not being casual despite the winning. What does he see as the strength of this team after 26 games?
Golden Knights audio:
Colin Miller
James Neal
Coach Gallant
