Penalties Kill Jets, Vegas wins on Ot power play goal
The Vegas Golden Knights came to Winnipeg in a slump and found a way to dig themselves out of it.
Play the Winnipeg Jets.
Tomas Hertl scored a power play goal with only 13 seconds left in overtime as the Golden Knights beat Winnipeg 4-3 at Canada Life Centre 13,491 fans who left the downtown barn screaming “Ref, You Suckl!”
The Knights were winless in nine (0-6-3) but got a tremendous opportunity in OT when Dylan Samberg was handed a high-sticking penalty with only 50 seconds left. Hertl’s goal was the second power-play tally of the night for Vegas who had four power-plays to Winnipeg’s two.
With the loss, the last-place Jets are now winless in their last 10 (0-6-4) and they’ve found so many different ways to lose, they are starting to run out of new and exciting methods. Monday night, it was, “build a 2-0 lead after two and a 3-2 lead late in the third and then give it away.
Even worse, on this night, they also lost defenceman Haydn Fleury to what appeared to be a very serious injury.
The defending President’s Cup champion Jets are now 15-21-5 on the season and dead last in the NHL
Cole Perfetti scored his third of the season (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
The Jets opened the scoring at the 5:16 mark of the opening period when Jonathan Toews fed a perfect pass onto the stick of Cole Perfetti who was alone at the side of goalie Carter Hart’s crease. Perfetti skated across the crease and tucked the puck into the opposite corner for his third goal of the season. Toews and Morrissey drew the assists as you could see the relief on Perfetti’s face. It was his first goal in 17 games. His last one came on Nov. 29, in Nashville.
A few minutes later, Knights’ forward Keegan Kolesar shoved an off-balance Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury hard into the end boards. Fleury was down for about five minutes as medical staff attended to him and was eventually wheeled from the ice on a stretcher. It was certainly not a check that warranted a penalty, but it was morally questionable. Shoving an off-balance player (by slamming him in the face) into the boards at full-speed might not be against the rules, but it’s still rather cowardly.
To his credit, Kolesar answered the bell on the ensuing faceoff and fought a losing battle against Jets captain Adam Lowry.
Fleury was quickly transported to hospital via ambulance. The good news: He had feeling in his extremities.
After that, both teams played with caution. It seemed the Fleury injury sucked the enthusiasm right out of the rink. The teams went to their respective dressing rooms with the Jets ahead 1-0 as Vegas outshot Winnipeg 6-5.
In the second period, absolutely nothing happened for 12 minutes. In fact, through the first 12 minutes of the second frame, the Jets and Knights each had one shot on goal.
But that’s when the unthinkable happened.
Luke Schenn (5) scored his first as a Jet (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
Non-scoring Luke Schenn, playing in his 1,100th NHL game, took a pass from Gabriel Vilardi at the point and fired a perfectly-placed wrist shot under the bar past a screened Hart. In a blink, Schenn suddenly had his first goal in 42 games as a member of the Winnipeg Jets. Vilardi and Lowry drew the assists and Winnipeg was up 2-0 – on just seven shots.
The Jets two-goal lead was cut to one at 19:10 of the period when Mark Stone scored on the power-play. It was interesting to hear Stone booed in his hometown.
After 40 minutes, the Jets led 2-1. Vegas had outshot the Jets 12-9 (8-4 in the second period) and outplayed them for most of the second half of the period. Winnipeg was actually quite fortunate to still be part of the argument.
The inevitable happened at 8:13 of the third period when Oakbank’s Brett Howden slapped a rebound past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to tie the game. Vegas tied the game before the Jets had a shot on goal in the third period. In fact, the Jets first shot on goal in the third period didn’t come until the 10:03 mark when Morgan Barron fired a wrister from the blueline.
However, a few minutes later, Jets head coach Scott Arniel finally abandoned the experiment of moving Gabriel Vilardi to another line in a futile attempt to get some secondary scoring. With a few minutes to play, he moved Vilardi back alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor and at 14:56 he set up the go-ahead goal. It was a perfect wrist shot to Hart’s stick side by Connor to give the Jets a brief 3-2 lead. It was Connor’s 20th of the year and Vilardi’s 20thassist.
But Vegas tied it just 59 seconds later as Reilly Smith beat Hellebuyck easily. At that point, Vegas had outshot Winnipeg 27-15 (15-6 in the third period).
Fleury stretchered off the ice (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
In overtime, Vegas won it on the power play. Both teams had five shots in the OT as Morgan Barron, Gabriel Vilardi and Neal Pionk all had great chances to score for Winnipeg.
The Jets play again Thursday night at Canada Life Centre when the Edmonton Oilers come to town. Game time is 7 p.m.
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