After a long wait and a summer of training, the young Winnipeg Jets prospects finally got to play a game as they opened the 2022 Young Stars Classic in Penticton, BC on Friday night.
All that excitement even put the Jets ahead early in the first period, but they couldn’t hang onto the lead, as the Edmonton Oilers prevailed 3-2 over the Jets.
Still, there was plenty to like.
“It sucks to lose. It’s nice to play a game again and make some plays, battle, and compete again,” said Cole Perfettiwho was playing in his first game since February after injuries ended his 2021-22 season.
“My body feels great. Back is feeling great, everything is feeling great,” he said. “Just a couple bounces today, but at the end of the day the body feels great and healthy.”
Brad Lambert, taken 30th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, scored once and added an assist in his first game in Jets colors.
“It was nice to get my legs back under me,” he said. “I thought we were pretty good for our first game.”
Lambert’s goal came just 7:31 into the first. Using his speed up the right wing side, he took a pass from Wyatt Bongiovanni and cut around Edmonton defenseman Noah Dorey, then beat goaltender Ryan Fanti to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
That speed has been Lambert’s calling card for years, and he used it brilliantly on the play.
“My speed and my puck skills are my strengths. I try to use them and hit holes, and play like that,” Lambert said. “We had pretty good chemistry for the first game and tomorrow we get to practice with each other again to build that chemistry up a little bit more.”
Edmonton tied it up on the power play with seven minutes left in the opening frame, putting a centering pass from Carter Savoie past Arvid Holm.
Holm made 29 saves on 32 shots in the game. The 23-year-old said he felt more pressure than he thought he would in the tournament opener, but got off to the start he was looking for.
The message from Moose goaltending coach Drew MacIntyre kept ringing through his head.
“We talked about just now being in a little bit more control and not chasing the game,” Holm said. “I feel like in Europe you can maybe get away with that with the bigger surface. Here you have to stay in control and be ready for a pass. Also a shot for a rebound, which is pretty common.”
It stayed tied until the midway point of the second, when a bad bounce put the Oilers in front. Michael Kesselring, rushing up the right wing side, attempted a cross-ice pass that went off Jets defenseman – and Manitoba product – Dean Stewart’s stick. The redirected puck beat Holm, who had shifted his body to prepare for the upcoming shot, putting the Oilers up 2-1.
Head coach Mark Morrison had to shuffle his lines a bit as forward Thomas Caron left the game with an injury, leading to him double-shifting some players – a tough spot to be in the first game in several months.
“I double shifted Perfetti two or three times in the second, maybe four, and with the soft ice and he hasn’t played in a while,” Morrison said. “I saw him bending over so I probably took the steam out of him a little bit.
“It was tough going, but a lot got accomplished.”
The Jets made the most of their second power play of the game to get back on even footing. Lambert’s initial attempt to bang home a rebound went unsuccessful, but Perfetti was able to grab the loose puck and find Greg Meireles in the left circle for a one-timer to make it 2-2. Lambert picked up the secondary assist for his second point of the night.
“Greg made a nice play there to find the back door and open it up,” said Perfetti. “It was a great play as a unit. I thought we were snapping it around and that’s hard to do when you don’t really get repetitions. We’ve done two reps in practice and that’s it. Considering that, I thought we were pretty good.”
The game-winner came with just under three minutes to go in regulation, as Perfetti tried to make a move behind the Jets net and had the puck bobble off his stick and in front of the Winnipeg net. Holm made the first save, but Edmonton’s James Hamblin chipped home the loose puck to make it 3-2.
The Jets had a late chance to tie at five-on-four with Holm pulled, but they weren’t able to get another past Fanti.
“I thought they worked really hard. They competed, that’s what we wanted, to see the compete level high,” said Morrison. “You can tell already they’re not happy with the loss. They’re going to work hard tomorrow and we have two more games.”
Winnipeg’s next action comes on Sunday afternoon (4 pm CT) against the host Vancouver Canucks.
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