JN Recap: Jets Start Homestand With 3-1 Win Over Calgary

The good times keep rolling on! Your Winnipeg Jets were the equivalent of an 18 wheeler tonight; a little slow to start but once they got going they were impossible to stop as they ran over the Calgary Flames 3-1.

We break down the game after the jump…

The first period was mostly even play between the two teams with the Flames narrowly out-shooting the Jets 9 to 8 and just as narrowly out-scoring them 1-0 when a puck that was stopped by Ondrej Pavelec after a Sam Bennett wraparound attempt was put home on the rebound by Mikael Backlund. It was an ugly display of defense as Pavs was late to react to the wraparound attempt that then put him out of position on the rebound while four men in blue jerseys allowed Backlund to sneak in on top of the crease.

It was the only costly miscue the Jets had all night.

From that point on going through the second period and into the third, the Jets displayed better exits out of their own zone and started creating more chances on offense. Flames goalie Karri Ramo looked equal to the task as he kept his team in the game with some fine saves and was only beaten once in the second period after a Blake Wheeler shot (Was it a shot? A pass? A hopeful fling with a silent prayer sent towards the net hoping something good would happen?) ricocheted off of the skate of Bryan Little and past Ramo to tie the game up.

The third period saw just as much pressure from the Jets and Flames goalie who looked to be dragging his team into a potential overtime session until Dustin Byfuglien made a nifty move at the blueline – a move that Calgary challenged put him offside seemingly forgetting that a player can make a move at the line provided he is in clear control of the puck – and surprised Romo with a shot that caught the netminder off his post just enough for the puck to squeeze by him for the GWG.

Blake Wheeler added an empty netter shortly after and the Jets are off to their best five game start since the return to Winnipeg with a 4-1-0 record.

Starting With The Puck Is Important: At the face-off dot, the Jets were 9 of 14 in their defensive zone and 18 of 31 in their own and neutral zones combined. For a team that last year was a bit vulnerable when it came to losing face-offs in their own zone, this can’t be overlooked as it helped the Jets maintain control of the game and limit scoring chances on Pavelec.

.931: That was Pavs’ save percentage tonight as again he turned in a solid performance that may not have been statistically impressive with only 18 shots against, but visually was pretty good especially in the first period when the Flames had a series of chances that could have made the game 2-0 in favor of Calgary. We still aren’t quite sure if Pavelec is ‘fixed’ but we certainly do not mind this version of him.

Power Outage? What’s wrong with Mark Scheifele?! He’s now gone two whole games without scoring a goal! It may be time to launch an investigation. Sure he’s still putting up great numbers, getting good scoring chances and looking stronger on his feet than he has at any other point in his career, but now he’s really going to have to grind if he’s going to hit that 82 goal pace he was on in the first three games of the season!

Winnipeg Jets individual 5v5 statistics:

Shot attempt chart for all minutes: