With the Winnipeg Jets icing their best preseason lineup to date, you would think that their big guns would have been the big contributors in a 4-2 home win over Calgary Saturday night.
But it wasn’t the likes of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabriel Vilardi who drove the bus; it was mostly players who were fighting to make the team or improve their standing in the call-up pecking order.
Winnipeg opened the scoring at the 5:12 mark of the first period thanks to a bit of a fluke. Walker Duehr drove the puck into the Calgary zone and sent a low shot on net from the corner. Devin Cooley turned it aside but the rebound bounced off Brayden Pachal and into the net.
The Jets doubled their lead at the 12:02 mark of the period. Brayden Yager had his initial shot blocked but he collected the loose puck after the block, dragged it to his backhand and sent a great pass to Nikita Chibrikov in the slot who made no mistake to make it 2-0.
Calgary got one back on the power play just over a minute later when a Zayne Parekh point shot found its way through Eric Comrie.
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With just under 2:30 to go in the first, the Jets restored their two-goal lead. Jaret Anderson-Dolan carried the puck along the wall deep in the Calgary end before sending a tape-to-tape pass to a hard-charging Parker Ford in front of the net and Ford steered it home to make it 3-1 after 20 minutes.
Both teams managed to get eight shots on goal in the first and added ten more in the second.
The Jets stretched their lead in the middle frame thanks to a Neal Pionk power play goal, beating Cooley from the point thanks in part to a good screen in front by Jonathan Toews.
That was the lone goal of the second but there was concern on the Winnipeg end when Dylan Samberg had to leave the game early in the period. He took a hit from Ryan Lomberg and was seen favouring his left arm/shoulder before heading down the tunnel.
Calgary cut the lead to two at the 5:23 mark of the third when Yan Kuznetzov banged home a rebound but that was as close as they would get.
Comrie made 22 saves as the Jets picked up their first preseason win in their final preseason home game.
Connor Hellebuyck will make his preseason debut when the Jets visit Minnesota Tuesday night.
