When teams head on the road in the pre-season, they tend to leave their big guns at home. That was the case for the Calgary Flames on Wednesday evening, as a fairly lean group headed to Winnipeg to visit the Jets.
The undermanned Flames hung in there for two periods and battled hard, but the star-laden Jets pulled away with three goals in the final period to capture a 5-2 exhibition victory over the visitors.
This represents the first regulation loss for the Flames during this exhibition season.
The rundown
The Flames opened the scoring in the first period. Jake Bean fired a shot from the point that was deflected by Martin Frk in the slot. That shot beat Connor Hellebuyck to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.
That lead didn’t last too long, though. With Anthony Mantha off for hooking, Nikolaj Ehlers blasted a one-timer from the slot past Dustin Wolf to tie the game at 1-1.
A bit later, Nino Neiderreiter was left completely alone in front of the Flames’ net. He received a pass from Ehlers and chipped the puck past Wolf from in-close to give the home side a 2-1 lead.
But the Flames tied things up late off a nice greasy play. Hunter Brzustewicz fired a puck on net with a couple Flames going in for the rebound. Justin Kirkland jammed the loose change past Hellebuyck to tie the game at 2-2.
Early in the third period, the Jets started to pull away. Gabe Vilardi drove the net, defended by Brzustewicz, and Wolf made the initial save. But Connor Zary and Jarred Tinordi couldn’t clear out the loose rebound, and Neiderreiter swatted the loose puck past Wolf to give Winnipeg a 3-2 advantage.
As the third began to wind down, the Jets padded their lead. An errant pass by Matt Coronato was intercepted by Brad Lambert. He set up Simon Lundmark, and he rifled a shot past Wolf from just below the circles to give the Jets a 4-2 lead.
Finally, Kyle Connor ended a nice passing sequence with a one-timer blast past Wolf – set up by Mark Scheifele from below the goal line – to give the Jets a 5-2 lead.
Why the Flames lost
They are who they thought they were. The Flames left a slew of their best and brightest back at home in Calgary and travelled day of to Winnipeg with a roster that more closely resembled the anticipated opening night group for the AHL’s Wranglers than their NHL group.
Give the Flames’ understudies credit: they worked hard and hung around for two periods. But they made just enough mistakes in the third period for the Jets to pull away and capture this pre-season victory.
Red Warrior
I don’t think Dustin Wolf had much help in this game, but he saw a lot of rubber and never really seemed too fazed by it. In short: he looked like you would hope and expect Wolf to look.
While he didn’t hit the scoresheet, this was easily Jakob Pelletier’s best game in the pre-season. He was constantly noticeable on the forecheck and his line with Cole Schwindt and Martin Frk was his club’s best. And while he was on for a couple goals against, this game was a really nice showcase for how good Hunter Brzustewicz could be if he polishes a few parts of his game.
Turning point
The Jets scored three times in the third period to pull away, and the Flames had zero answer for them in the final 20 minutes.
This and that
Here’s how the Flames lined up:
Hunt [A]-Zary-Mantha [A]
Pelletier-Schwindt-Frk
Kirkland-Morton-Coronato
Bishop-Rooney [A]-Duehr
Bahl-Barrie
Bean-Miromanov
Tinordi-Brzustewicz
Dustin Wolf stated in goal and went the distance, backed up by Devin Cooley.
Up next
The Flames close out their pre-season schedule on Friday night when they host the Jets.
