WINNIPEG - For the second straight night the Winnipeg Jets were “out goalie’d” on the road as Vancouver Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko made 37 saves in a 3-2 win. Despite the Jets shot advantage the Canucks out worked the Jets almost all game except for the last 2 ½ minutes or so when Winnipeg pulled Eric Comrie for the 6th attacker.
Vancouver opened the scoring at 13:51 of the first when Oliver Ekman-Larson’s power play goal beat Comrie, then early in the 2nd Kyle Burroughs gave the Canucks a 2-0 lead. That goal was answered back quickly when Nikolaj Ehlers scored his 6th of the year to narrow the gap. Conor Garland scored another power play goal a few minutes later to restore Vancouver’s 2 goal lead which they held until Pierre-Luc Dubois scored with 2:28 remaining in the 3rd period with Comrie on the bench. The Jets pushed hard but couldn’t get that tying goal before time expired.
Eric Comrie made 26 saves in a losing effort. Kyle Connor and Marc Scheifele both added an assist. Going into last night, Vancouver was 0-13 on the power play in their last 5 games but easily fixed that aspect of their game against the Jets who took 4 minor penalties vs. Vancouver’s 1.
The Jets are now 9-4-4 and 2-3-3 on the road and remain in first place in the Central Division. Winnipeg has the weekend off and return home to host Pittsburgh on Monday night at 7:30pm (SNW, 680 CJOB/Power 97).
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