Flying high off of an 8-1 win on Tuesday against the Boston Bruins, the Winnipeg Jets looked hardly like the same team on Thursday night against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Connor Hellebuyck and Josh Morrissey had this game within striking distance, but it ended in a 3-2 overtime loss, Winnipeg’s eighth-straight loss to the Golden Knights.
Late penalties cost the Jets
A Josh Morrissey slap shot 10:55 into the third period gave Winnipeg a 2-1 lead – an improbable one, given the Jets had gone long stretches of this game without recording a shot on goal. By Natural Stat Trick’s count, Winnipeg recorded just 13 scoring chances, compared to Vegas’ 37.
Connor Hellebuyck was brilliant and kept the Jets in it until late in the third period, when Gabriel Vilardi and Dylan DeMelo each took tripping penalties, putting the Jets on an extended 5-on-3. Scott Arniel was reluctant to speak to the validity of those calls in the post-game.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“I mean, Gabe’s was a penalty,” Arniel said. “200 feet from our net, that was a penalty. Not talking about the other one. I think just… They have their power play with two minutes to go. Anyways, the first one was a penalty.”
Just seconds later, DeMelo was called for tripping, and he was unhappy about it.
“Yeah, definitely unfortunate,” DeMelo said. “I’ve seen guys do a lot worse and not get a call. So that’s a tough pill to swallow. We all know at the end of games or overtime has got to be pretty egregious to be a penalty. He deemed it so.”
Vegas scored on the 5-on-3 and sent the game into overtime before Ivan Barbashev beat Hellebuyck over the blocker side to end it.
Discipline has been a strength of the Jets this season, as coming into this game, they had a 54% power play share, the fourth-best mark in the NHL.
Nikita Chibrikov scores again
Nikita Chibrikov has played three games in his NHL career. He has one goal in each of those games. His goal on this night opened the scoring as he buried a rebound chance off the rush. Morrissey and Arniel took note of how the 21-year-old player has played in his two games so far this season.
“We should probably lock him up now before he does that for the rest of the year,” Morrissey joked after the game. “He’s just a really smart player. He’s not the tallest guy, but he’s strong on his skates. Strong on pucks and on his stick. You see a lot of little plays that he’s making out there.”
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
It’s not just the goal-scoring that Chibrikov has impressed in, he has become a reliable player in the defensive end, along with making smart decisions in the neutral zone. Often, young players will come into the lineup and try to do “too much” or re-model their game to something different, but that is not the case with Chibrikov.
“He had a good season last year and he gained confidence from it, got to play a game with us at the end of the year,” Arniel said. “I thought he was really good in training camp. We used him in a lot of top-six roles. He’s taking advantage of the opportunity that’s put in front of him and you know what? That’s all you ask of your players. We’ll give you the chance and it’s yours to go out and take and he’s done a pretty good job of it.”
Chibrikov is putting together a strong case to remain with the Winnipeg Jets past the return of Nikolaj Ehlers (lower-body), and it will be interesting to see how the Jets coaching staff and organization handles the situation. He could carve out a role as one of the best 12 forwards on this Jets roster, it’s just a matter of deciding which role that would be.
Up next
The Jets will wrap up their four-game homestand on Saturday evening when Patrik Laine and the Montreal Canadiens come to town. The Canadiens are coming off a 9-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice on Thursday evening, so they will be looking to bounce back.
The Jets will practice today, so stay tuned to illegalcurve.com for all the latest Jets news coming out of the weekend, as well as the Manitoba Moose.
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