And the crowd goes wild for the stout Jets defence! Just kidding, the Islanders crowd was pissed, and our defence was freaking out. It didn’t help that we were on the penalty kill three times, sufficient to make us look like we were on our heels constantly from the late 1st to the early 3rd periods. We had two guys take some rough shots (Nik Antropov to his gargantuan monkey arms, Randy Jones to his inner tootsie), so we might be seeing a few more fresh faces in the coming game. Fully deserving of pre-jump praise was Ondrej Pavelec, who stood on his head to the tune of 34 saves for the Ess-Aytch-Oh. There will be tiny babies named “Ondrej” born in Winnipeg tonight.
1st Period: 4:21 Winnipeg ES Goal, Evander Kane (Kyle Wellwood, Johnny Oduya)
2nd Period: No scoring
3rd Period: 16:04 Winnipeg ES Goal, Johnny Oduya (Evander Kane, Nik Antropov); 17:44 Winnipeg EN Goal, Alexander Burmistrov (unassisted)
Shots: Winnipeg 25, Islanders 34
- I’m going to say it again: Pavelec was a madman today. It wasn’t pretty, but he went to work tonight and made us look better than we were on the scoresheet.
- As if Evander Kane wasn’t enough of a monster, he threw down with Travis Hamonic in the 1st and hit him in the melon a few times. That, ladies and gentleman, gives him the fabled Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
- Mark Flood wasn’t very impressive, but I actually think Brett Festerling looked pretty serviceable out there. Had a couple of nice shots, looked good with the puck, yadda yadda yadda he’s going to be playing anyway because Raja’s got an oobie.
- Tanner Glass was looking pretty awesome today; I don’t know if he went to some kind of stickhandling clinic in the offseason (remember when he biffed that shot in the Finals?), but he was looking smart and composed with the puck.
- Zach Bogosian looked good, at one point he threw down an Islander like he was King Kong.
- Both Jones’ and Antropov’s injuries came on the penalty kill, because it’s not uncommon to have to block shots on the penalty kill, so don’t go on the penalty kill, like I told you before you doofuses.
- As I observed in the game thread, we still have this terrible habit of collapsing on the puck carrier in our defensive zone, which leaves the point man wide open for a boomer. Let’s try to not do this.
- Alexander Burmistrov may have gotten an empty-netter, but by far the coolest play of the game was seeing him backcheck like crazy in the 1st period, disrupting a big opportunity for the Islanders and throwing himself into the net in the process. I love this guy.
- Tag ’em and bag ’em, boys, we got ourselves a win streak! I’m going to go have a sandwich now…
