Jets outshoot Oilers 2:1, but giveaways and power plays fuel sixth-straight loss. Pickard shines in net.
The Edmonton Oilers certainly have a way with the Winnipeg Jets.
On Monday night, it came via giveaway and power play, as the Oilers handed Winnipeg its sixth-straight loss, 3-1 in front of another sellout crowd at Canada Life Centre.
Despite another strong effort from the home team, Winnipeg fell to 15-18-4 on the year, taking home its ninth loss in its past 11 games played.
“That’s tough," said head coach Scott Arniel after another loss. "Again, that’s six periods for me that we’ve been (playing) how we have to play. The only difference is we need points. We need the points. We have to find a way to score more goals than the opposition and we have to get points.
The Jets received their lone goal from captain Adam Lowry, who broke a lengthy drought with his second of the season as he got Winnipeg on the board in the third period. But that was all his mates could muster in another losing effort.
It's not often you outshoot your opponent 2:1 all game and still come out with your face on the mat, but Winnipeg did just that.
“I thought we played really well," Lowry said post-game. "Obviously, there are no moral victories, but I think we play that style of hockey, if we play that consistent effort for sixty minutes, we are going to get more positive results than we got here tonight. That’s what you can take from this game."
The Jets came out swinging in the first round, pushing their Albertan opponents to the ropes, but the Oilers hung on and escaped a rather lopsided opening period down 15-9 on the shot chart, but maintaining the 0-0 score.
Winnipeg led the high-danger chance statistic at a whopping 6-1, but local lad Calvin Pickard came up big between the pipes. The Jets also took the lone fight of the game: a spirited tilt between Neal Pionk and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had a combined nine prior fights in advance of the altercation.
The second period gave Edmonton two goals.
The first came off an egregious Logan Stanley turnover, as he opted to hand Max Jones the puck from behind the Jets' goal, gifting Edmonton its first of the game midway through the frame.
Then, with Dylan Samberg in the box for tripping, Jack Roslovic - a former Jets first round draft pick - doubled the Oilers' lead. Collecting a loose puck at the bottom of the circle, Roslovic fired home his 11th of the year, beating Connor Hellebuyck cleanly.
Again, the Jets maintained a 2:1 shot lead with 26 pucks on net through 40 minutes, but Pickard, the former St. Paul's High School product was up to the task.
Lowry needed 5:46 of the third period to finally find a way to beat Pickard.
He did so with his second goal of the season, and first since November 18, putting the 2-1 marker into the Oilers' net off a hard-working play from linemate Morgan Barron.
Continuing their 2:1 shot differential over the Oilers, Winnipeg was ultimately unable to get another puck past Pickard, who finished the night with 41 stops on the 42 pucks he faced.
Hellebuyck made 18 saves on the 20 shots fired his way.
Zach Hyman put his 11th of the season into the empty net, sealing the deal for the Oilers in the Jets' last ditch effort to find a goal.
"I thought we created a lot of chances five-on-five," Lowry said of his team's effort. "Like I said, we take the effort, the style, those things into the next game. That’s all we can do. The results are going to follow if we can continue with efforts like those.”
Winnipeg now hits the road for a three-game trek through Detroit, Toronto and Ottawa hoping for a better fate than that of their past few trips out East.