Facing off against an Edmonton Oilers squad with few NHL regulars in the lineup, the Winnipeg Jets pulled away late in a 5-0 pre-season win on Monday.
The Jets scored four unanswered goals in the third period to beat the Oilers for the second straight night and improve to 2-0 during the exhibition season.
Kyle Connor, Neal Pionk, David Gustafsson, Morgan Barron and Kyle Capobianco notched the markers for the Jets in the win.
It was the first game together for the Jets new top line of Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi, and they did not disappoint. Vilardi made a marvelous no-look pass to set up Connor for the game’s first goal on a power play.
“We’re looking for chemistry,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. “We’ll see what that top line, see how Gabe’s going to fit in there.
“That looked good tonight. Their roster wasn’t as strong as ours tonight, so, I think the result, based on the lineups, we should have won that game, and we did.”
Vilardi also had a breakaway and several other dangerous chances and the chemistry between the trio appears to be there already.
“I mean it’s one game,” Vilardi said. “They’ve played together for a long time. I’m kinda the new guy coming in. I got to figure out how I can help them out. Obviously they’re both very skilled players and draw guys to them. It gives me extra space when I get the puck.”
Laurent Brossoit made his return to the Jets crease after re-joining the team as a free agent over the summer following a Stanley Cup win with the Vegas Golden Knights. He wasn’t overly busy but stopped all 26 shots thrown in his direction for the shutout. But he needed a little help from Pionk, who swatted a puck off the goal line in the third period.
“If you’re going to get a shutout, you’re going to need a couple lucky breaks like that,” said Brossoit. “And Obviously P (Pionk) was in the right position at the right time, and helped me out.
After failing on their first power play attempt of the contest, the Jets opened the scoring on their second try with the man advantage thanks to their new-look top line.
Scheifele fed the puck down low to Vilardi, who was stationed to the right of Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard. Vilardi then sent a perfect backhand pass to the far faceoff dot where Connor was waiting to blast it into a wide open net.
Edmonton had better chances at even strength as they outshot the Jets 11-8 in the opening frame but where unable to beat Brossoit.
The Oilers came close to evening the score with less than four minutes to go in the second period on a 2-on-1 but a centering pass to Xavier Bourgault never got there because Logan Stanley had his stick tied up.
Just over a minute later, Vilardi was sprung on a partial breakaway but his shot whistled wide of the net.
Each side had seven shots on goal in the fast-moving second period, but the score remained 1-0 Winnipeg after two.
The Jets finally extended their lead early in the third. After taking the puck into the Edmonton zone, Vladislav Namestnikov laid a pass back to the point where Pionk hammered it through Pickard, aided by a good screen from Barron.
The Oilers were given a great opportunity moments later after a pair of Winnipeg penalties gave Edmonton 48 seconds of 5-on-3 action before an Oilers penalty ended the party early.
Near the end of the ensuing Jets power play, the Oilers almost got on the board when a shot slipped through Brossoit but it was cleared off the goal-line at the last second by Pionk.
That was Edmonton’s last shot before the dams burst.
Winnipeg made it 3-0 just past the midway point of the third when a Logan Stanley point shot was redirected by Gustafsson in the slot.
Roughly four minutes later, Josh Morrissey found a wide-open Barron parked in the slot and Barron made no mistake as the lead grew to 4-0.
Two minutes after that, Capobianco roofed a wrister on a power play to make it 5-0.
Broissoit was rock-solid in earning the preseason shutout, while 14 skaters registered at least a point for Winnipeg.
The Jets’ next preseason contest is Wednesday night at home against Calgary. Puck drop is just after 7 p.m. with pregame coverage starting at 5 p.m. on 680 CJOB.
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