Jets Fall to 1-3-0 with 5-3 Loss to Vegas

The Winnipeg Jets faced off against the NHL's top dog on Thursday night, as the reigning Stanley Cup champion and current first-place Vegas Golden Knights took to the ice at Canada Life Centre for the third of three-straight home games for Winnipeg. 

The Jets pulled ahead early, squandered their lead, tied it back up late, before gifting another win to the league's best team, which began the season with the best record by a defending Cup-winning team since 1985-86.  

“The end result stings," head coach Rick Bowness said postgame. 

"That was a great third period, give their goalie a lot of credit. He made all those key saves. That being said we just can’t keep giving up four, five goals a game. We’re not going to win until we stop that. Which means we’ve got to clean up our zone. Our turnovers in our zone are really costing us." 

Goaltender Laurent Brossoit took to Winnipeg's crease for the first time this season, and did so against his former running mates. 

“It’s frustrating to lose, obviously," said forward Alex Iafallo. "You want to win every game, but we are just going to stay positive. I feel like we are doing a lot of good things. We need to clean up some mistakes but at the same time we are just going to keep climbing, climbing that mountain.”

The Jets wasted little time taking some early revenge on the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last spring by way of four-straight losses. 

It was Iafallo of the new-look third line that put the finishing touches on a Josh Morrissey setup shot-pass. Carrying the puck into the Vegas zone, Morrissey broke in down the left wing and took aim for goaltender Logan Thompson’s left pad. As planned, the rebound went straight to Iafallo, who calmly tapped it home for the opening goal just 1:30 into the game.

It took until the 17-minute mark for the No. 1 seed Golden Knights to respond. The visitors did so with a power play strike from reigning Conn Smythe trophy winner Jonathan Marchessault. With Logan Stanley in the box for high sticking, Chandler Stephenson got the puck across ice to Marchessault, who hammered home his second of the year, knotting the game at ones with 2:18 to go.

Thanks to some phenomenal goaltending by the former Brandon Wheat Kings netminder, Vegas remained even with Winnipeg through 20 minutes. Thompson absolutely robbed Cole Perfetti late in the frame with a desperation paddle stop.

The second period provided another early goal, but this time it went Vegas’ way. A rare defensive zone misplay from Dylan DeMelo led to two Manitobans picking up points. Mark Stone stripped DeMelo of the puck, before feeding Brett Howden on the Jets’ doorstep. He beat his former teammate to give the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead just 49 seconds in.

Then it was Alex Martinez who got his first goal of the season on a beautiful shot. William Karlsson found his defenceman streaking in from the point and fed him nicely. Martinez did the rest, going bar-down past Brossoit with 4:33 to play.

But that wasn’t quite it for the Jets, as Nikolaj Ehlers, Vlad Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti teamed up for a nifty-looking tally of their own just 33 seconds later. Winnipeg finished the second down 3-2 but ahead 20-18 through 40 minutes.

The Jets maintained their pressure to start the third, going on a 9-0 run on the shot chart. The pressure paid off, as Rasmus Kupari drew a holding call in a battle for a loose puck. 

With Ivan Barbashev in the box, Winnipeg needed just 18 seconds of power play time to knot things up at threes. A beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play between Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele and Iafallo led to the latter's second tally of the game and third of the year. The goal came with 8:28 to play in the third. 

“Yeah, that’s fun hockey too," Iafallo said of his team's strong start to the third. "Everybody is staying aggressive on the puck, the D are loading up and shooting from up top there and getting chances. So we’ve gotta stick to that.”

But all the good came undone just as fast, as Iafallo quickly found himself in the box on a slashing minor of his own.

And with the advantage, Vegas struck. Stone found a wide-open Jack Eichel, who ripped his third of the season past Brossoit, putting Vegas up once again with just 4:36 to go.

Nicolas Roy added the insurance on an empty-net strike with 1:03 to play. The loss moved Winnipeg to 1-3-0 on the season, while Vegas improved to a league-best 5-0-0.

Brossoit finished the night with 21 stops on 25 Golden Knights shots, while Thompson made 36 saves on Winnipeg's 39 shots.

“You try to do everything right and you look around the room and everybody is giving it their all," Iafallo concluded. "Sometimes it’s just lucky bounces and it doesn’t go your way. You’ve got to stick with it and stay together.”

Next up for Winnipeg is a late-night Saturday contest against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. Facing off in the 9:00 PM slot, the Jets will look to stay awake against two of the league's top players. That game can be viewed live on Sportsnet and CBC.