It wasn’t pretty, but that’s preseason hockey for you.
Playing most of their regulars, the Winnipeg Jets pulled away late for a 5-2 win Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre over a Calgary Flames team that featured many AHLers.
The game was deadlocked to start the third period, but the Jets scored three times in the final 14 minutes for just their second win of the pre-season.
“I think our whole team was kinda sleepy for two periods,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “It was a little bit sloppy there at times and I thought the whole group kinda got better as the game went on.”
The Jets outshot Calgary 11-5 in the final frame.
“We definitely had a good third period there,” Gabriel Vilardi told the 680 CJOB Jets post game show. “I think both teams kinda had their chances through the first two periods.
“We kinda got the better of them in the third.”
Nino Niederreiter notched a pair of goals in the victory. Vilardi recorded three assists, and with five shots on goal he had several quality scoring chances.
“His passing ability, his vision, his ability to hold onto pucks is elite,” said Arniel. “And when he does that, he opens up ice for other people. Sometimes they’ll have two defenders on him and that creates some of those holes.”
The Jets number one line of Vilardi, Mark Scheifele, and Kyle Connor combined for six points and seem to be finding their groove together with only one more preseason game to work out the kinks.
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“It takes time,” said Vilardi. “I mean it’s our second game here of the pre-season. We’ll see if we get another one on Friday, but just reading off each other. Obviously, those two have played together for a long time.”
It was another special night for the Jets special teams as they killed off both their penalties successfully, while going 1-for-3 on the power play with a ton of dangerous chances. It was the third straight game they scored a goal on the man advantage.
“We’ve been working on it,” said forward Nikolaj Ehlers. “And obviously, there is still some things that we need to figure out, but I think overall we created a lot of chances today and when we lost it, we were doing everything we could to get it back, so, yeah that was very positive.”
After giving up eight goals in his first preseason appearance, Connor Hellebuyck bounced back in his second outing stopping 17 of the 19 shots he faced.
Jets forward David Gustafsson left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury and will be evaluated on Thursday.
The visitors opened the scoring just over eight minutes into the first period when Martin Frk redirected a point shot from Jake Bean past Hellebuyck.
Less than three minutes later, the Jets leveled the score on the power play. With their top unit on the ice, Winnipeg zipped the puck around the Flames’ zone, with Vilardi just below the goal line sending a short, quick pass to Ehlers in the slot before the Dane wired it past Dustin Wolf to make it 1-1.
Under two minutes later, Winnipeg had their first lead of the game. After Calgary failed to clear the puck, Ehlers found Niederreiter in front of the net and he roofed it past Wolf to make it 2-1.
But with 2:05 to go in the first, the Flames drew level again. A Jets turnover in the neutral zone sprung the Flames on a 3-on-3 rush, which resulted in a net-front scramble and a Justin Kirkland goal.
Neither team found the back of the net in the second period, though Winnipeg had the best chance to score.
Adam Lowry was sprung on a partial breakaway, but after putting a move on Wolf, he slid the puck through the goalie’s five-hole and out the side, missing the net by a foot or two.
Winnipeg grabbed the lead again at the 6:28 mark of the third period. Vilardi was turned aside after an impressive net drive, but Lowry sent the rebound to Niederreiter who potted it into a yawning net.
Simon Lundmark would add an insurance marker with 5:43 remaining, walking in from the point and taking a pass from Brad Lambert before wiring a shot over the shoulder of Wolf.
Connor got in on the fun with 3:13 to go. Scheifele had the puck behind Calgary’s net and fed Connor in the slot, who buried it for his second of the preseason.
The two teams will meet again in Calgary Friday in the final preseason game for both sides. Puck drop is just after 8 p.m. with pregame coverage on Power 97 starting at 6.
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