COMRIE MAKES 34 Saves To Lead Jets to Big home win
It’s been pretty cold in Winnipeg for the past week. And that was just perfect.
They say revenge is best served cold and it was served ice cold on the Buffalo Sabres at Canada Life Centre on Friday night. Thanks to a goal and an assist from both Cole Koepke and Kyle Connor and a brilliant netminding performance by Eric Comrie, the Jets whipped the Sabres 4-1.
Considering the Sabres beat the Jets 5-1 in Buffalo on Monday night, this one felt pretty good for the home side.
With the win, the Jets improved to 14-12-1 and moved back into the final Wild Card spot in the West. More importantly, after going 1-3-1 on their recent five-game road trip, the Jets are back in the winner’s circle again.
“It was important to come home and win this one in front of our fans,” said Koepke after the game. There was no doubt about that.
Even though the Sabres dominated the first period, the Jets opened the scoring at 4:24, when Kyle Connor was left alone to the left of Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen. Lukkonen stopped Connor’s first shot, but the Jets top goal scorer banged the rebound through the goalie’s five hole for his 15th tally of the season. Gabriel Vilardi, who made the pass that set-up Connor drew the primary assist, his 12th of the year, while Dylan Samberg was also credited with a helper.
Jets celebrate Kyle Connor's 15th of the Year (Scott Stroh Photo)
Buffalo tied it on the power play at 14:44 as Jason Zucker took care of his own rebound to beat a sprawling Eric Comrie. It was Zucker’s ninth of the year.
The Jets had one good scoring chance before the end of the period, but Lukkonen was equal to the task, and the teams went to their respective dressing rooms tied at one. Buffalo outshot Winnipeg 15-8 and completely outskated the home side. In fact, in the first period against this young Sabres team, the Jets looked two-steps too slow.
However, Winnipeg went ahead 2-1 at 2:22 of the second period when Cole Koepke stole the puck from Buffalo’s Alex Tuch at the Winnipeg blueline and sent Tanner Pearson in alone on Lukkonen and he made no mistake, burying a wrist shot into the lower-left corner. It was Pearson’s fourth of the season and Koepke’s third assist.
Big Goal by Tanner Pearson (Photo by Scott Stroh)
By the middle of the period, it should have been 4-1 Jets except for, well, stone hands. Mark Scheifele set up Logan Stanley on the doorstep with a wide-open net and, somehow, Stanley found Lukkonen’s pad. Then Adam Lowry was awarded a penalty shot and he proceeded to wander in and push some kind of weak shot right at the Sabres netminder. No team, especially a team struggling to score like the Jets, can miss those gifts and expect to win.
And yet, the Jets kept plugging away until the 18:42 mark of the third period when the fourth line struck again. This time Dylan DeMelo fired a stretch pass onto the stick of Morgan Barron who fed Cole Koepke streaking toward the Sabres net. Koepke made a Sidney Crosby move and broke both Lukkonens’s ankles as he tucked the puck into the corner of the goal.
It was a goal-scorer’s goal – Koepke’s first as a member of the Jets – and it gave Winnipeg a 3-1 lead heading to the third even though the Jets had been outshot 26-17 (11-9 in the second period).
The Jets seemed to make it 4-1 on a goal by Mark Scheifele with 6:36 left to play, but the Sabres protested saying Scheifele was offside earlier in the play. The video declared the indeed he was offside, so it remained 3-1.
The Jets did make it 4-1 with an empty netter by Gabriel Vilardi at 19:26. However, right before the goal, Comrie made two outstanding saves and then as the Jets carried the puck into the Buffalo zone, Connor was hooked, slashed and hauled down from behind and neither referee put up his arm. There is something fishy going on in the NHL and the only explanation I have is that the officials make up the rules as they go along.
Regardless, Vilardi took a pass from the falling Connor and drilled it into the empty net to put the game away. It was Vilardi’s 12th goal of the year while Connor picked up his 19th assist and Scheifele, who started the play, picked up his 21st assist of the season.
Eric Comrie had a huge game for the Jets (Scott Stroh Photo)
Buffalo outshot Winnipeg 35-23 (9-6 in the third period) as Comrie had a superb game for the Jets. The Jets outhit Buffalo 33-22 and won 53.6 per cent of the faceoffs. Koepke, Comrie and Pearson were the three stars.
The Jets jumped on a charter right after the game and flew to Edmonton for tonight’s game against the Oilers (9 p.m. CST on Sportsnet and CBC). Winnipeg will then return home to face the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
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