WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets struck for three goals in the third period as they rallied for their second straight victory of the pre-season.
The Jets defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-3 on Wednesday at Bell MTS Place. Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and two assists while Bryan Little scored a pair of goals in the exhibition win.
“It’s always good to get the confidence going in pre-season and going to the first game feeling good.” Little said.
“I thought it was a really good effort from the whole team though. They had some good guys in the lineup and some skilled forwards in the lineup and I thought we did a really good job of just taking the game to them.”
The Jets scored three more goals on the powerplay to finish the night 3-for-7 with the man advantage. The Jets have scored 15 goals in their six pre-season games with 12 of them coming on the man advantage.
“Since the second powerplay didn’t get much time last game it was fun to be out there again.” Nikolaj Ehlers said. “And it’s something we’ve wanted to do better in the past two years and it feels good right now, but we got to keep working on it.”
Ehlers recorded a couple of assists while Nic Petan and Marko Dano also scored for the Jets in the victory. The Jets’ penalty kill was perfect for the night killing off both the Senators’ opportunities.
“There’s an offensive group kinda of competing with each other and then there’s a group that’s out here to kill penalties and do some of the grinding work so they had a good impact too.” head coach Paul Maurice said. “Those powerplay goals were important but that penalty kill was more important. That keeps it at three and it’s the deciding factor in being able to do that.”
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 15 of the 18 shots he faced for his first pre-season win. Bobby Ryan, Alex Formenton and Kyle Turris scored the goals for the Sens while Mike Condon made 29 saves.
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The Sens struck for the game’s first goal just 2:33 into the hockey game. From along the boards, Ryan threw a harmless looking shot towards the net. But his shot deflected off Jets forward Marko Dano and in behind Hellebuyck. Ryan’s first goal of the pre-season was unassisted and the Senators were out in front.
The Jets tied it up with just 11.5 seconds left in the opening period. Byfuglien sent it back to the blueline for Josh Morrissey and he unloaded a one-timer that was re-directed in by Petan. It was Petan’s first tally of the pre-season and it was 1-1 through one period of play.
Winnipeg outshot Ottawa 14-5 in the period.
Midway through the second stanza the Sens went back on top. Kyle Connor turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Formenton waltzed in on the breakaway. He roofed it behind Hellebuyck. The goal was unassisted and Ottawa had a 2-1 lead.
With just over three minutes remaining in the middle period the Senators tacked on another goal. Mark Stone made a beautiful pass to a wide open Turris and he had the gaping cage to make the deposit. Zack Smith drew the other helper and it was a 3-1 Ottawa lead.
For the second straight period the Jets would score in the dying seconds. Just nine seconds into a powerplay and with just 10 seconds left in the frame, Byfuglien blasted the shot past Condon. Ehlers and Mathieu Perreault had the assists on Byfuglien’s second goal of the pre-season. The Jets trailed by a goal after 40 minutes of play after having a 12-7 advantage in shots in the period.
The Jets powerplay connected for the third time midway through the final frame. Cruising through the slot Little picked the top corner for his first exhibition goal. Byfuglien and Ehlers had the assists on the powerplay marker and it was 3-3.
With under seven minutes to go Petan blocked the shot in his own end and raced in on a 2-on-1 with Dano. Petan sent it across to Dano and he flipped it into the top shelf for the go ahead goal. It turned out to be the game winner in a 5-3 Jets’ victory as Little scored into the empty net with just five seconds remaining.
The entire top line for the Jets sat out with Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele all scratched.
The Jets will close out their pre-season schedule on Saturday in Calgary. The season opener is set for Wednesday when the Jets play host to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Bell MTS Place.
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