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Game Recap: Penguins @ Jets

Oct 20, 2024; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Retired Winnipeg Jet Bryan Little with Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) as LittleÕs wife and daughter do a ceremonial puck drop at Canada Life Centre. Mandatory Credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images

The Winnipeg Jets were hoping to keep their hot streak going against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday at the Canada Life Centre. With 4 straight victories, coach Scott Arniel changed things up a bit by inserting David Gustafsson, Logan Stanley, & Eric Comrie into the starting lineup (courtesy of PuckPedia):

GAME RECAP

This match was quite the rollercoaster affair, with Winnipeg really controlling the flow of play early in the period. However, the Jets weren’t able to take advantage of that on the scoreboard and eventually it was Pittsburgh’s turn to put the pressure on.

Neither squad could break the goose egg in the opening frame, but the Penguins were able to open the scoring early in the 2nd. This sparked even more offense from the visitors and they were able to add another marker to take a 2 goal lead shortly after. It was looking like Winnipeg might get blown out, but eventually they were able to work their way back into the game. Mainly thanks to Nikolaj Ehlers, who used that great speed to fly up the wing before dishing the perfect cross-ice pass to find Kyle Connor for the Jets’ first goal. Winnipeg used the gained momentum to attack the Penguins in the late part of the period and it paid off with Mark Scheifele & Vladislav Namestnikov goals to make it 3-2 at the end of the middle frame.

A defensive miscue by the Jets led to the Penguins tying the game early in the 3rd period, however Winnipeg’s checking line helped their squad to a fifth straight victory via goals from Adam Lowry & Mason Appleton. All that was left then was for the same trio to add an empty netter by Nino Niederreiter to seal the deal.

FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg 6 Pittsburgh 3

FINAL STATS

Shots: 42-37 PIT / Hits: 21-18 WPG / Face-Offs: 45.2% WPG / Expected Goals: 5.30 WPG to 4.49 PIT

MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 50.6% PIT / High Danger Chances: 21 to 17 PIT

SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN

SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick

ADVANCED STATS from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick

ADVANCED STATS for Line Combos from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick

If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:

MoneyPuck: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Winnipeg Jets – Sunday October 20 2024 – MoneyPuck.com

NaturalStatTrick: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Winnipeg Jets, 2024-10-20

BOJA’s Observations:

  • True North’s celebration of Bryan Little provided the fans in attendance with BIG offense. A very exciting contest to watch with both teams having periods of dominance. Lots of big saves and high quality scoring chances. Fun to watch….but not really a Jets type of game.
  • A fabulous debut for Eric Comrie in the crease. Stopping 39 of 42 shots he faced (.929 save %), including a massive amount of looks from the low slot (21 high danger chances). According to MoneyPuck, Comrie should have allowed 4.6 goals against Pittsburgh, so his 3.00 GAA was still quite impressive.
  • Another shining example of why the Winnipeg Jets need to lock up Nikolaj Ehlers to a new contract. The Dane was extremely good again, despite his 2nd line losing the expected goals (xG) battle (27.4%). The set up on the Kyle Connor goal was fantastic and almost matched by the backdoor feed for Vladislav Namestnikov’s marker. Gotta love Fly!!!
  • Okay, it’s only fair that I praise the Jets’ top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, & Gabriel Vilardi for their performance against Pittsburgh. I always point out when the lose the xG battle, so I should congratulate them on getting 61.8% of those against a talented Pens’ top six. Winnipeg’s 1st line was the only forward unit to get above the 50% mark on Sunday.
  • Was very much not impressed with Logan Stanley’s debut. The big guy made so many poor decisions on zone exit passes that ended up leading to long periods of defensive play, penalties, or goals against. Should have let the defenseman have a few more days of practice before inserting him in the lineup.

A terrific start for our Winnipeg Jets, but really it should have been somewhat expected due to the lack of quality talent in their early opponents. After two games of playing a “run & gun” style, it might be time for the team to return to their defensive strategy if they want to keep being successful. Way too many quality looks on our goalies in the past two matches…..and their next opponent is a team I sort of expect to have a better year than most experts expect.

UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets (5-0-0) @ St. Louis Blues (4-2-0) – Tuesday, October 22nd @ 7 pm CST

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