The Penguins played against the Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 20th, taking their fourth loss of the season while the Winnipeg Jets remain undefeated since the beginning of the season. Lars Eller scored two goals and Kevin Hayes scored a goal for Pittsburgh. Adam Lowry scored the game-winning goal in the final frame when he broke the tie to give Winnipeg their 5th consecutive victory to start the season. Alex Nedeljkovic was in the net for the Penguins, this being his season debut as Pittsburgh recalled him from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins on Saturday… he had been activated from injured reserve and assigned to Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. The Penguins take on the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, and the Jets head to St. Louis to play against the Blues on Tuesday.
Pittsburgh Penguins Lineup:
O’Connor – Crosby – Rust
Rakell – Malkin – Puljujarvi
Beauvillier – Eller – Glass
Hayes – Acciari – Puustinen
Grzelyck – Letang
Pettersson – Karlsson
Graves – Shea
Nedeljkovic
Blomqvist
Winnipeg Jets Lineup:
Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi
Perfetti – Namestnikov – Ehlers
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Barron – Kupari – Iafallo
Morrissey – DeMelo
Samberg – Pionk
Fleury – Miller
Comrie
Hellebuyck
Kevin Hayes broke the ice after a scoreless opening period early into the middle frame at 18:30 to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead. A cross-slot pass from Rickard Rakell found Hayes at the side of the net, who scored on a one-timer on the power play. Soon after the opening goal, Lars Eller put Pittsburgh ahead 2-0 at 14:39 of the second when he found a loose puck on the rebound of a redirected shot from Erik Karlsson. At 7:42, Kyle Connor struck the first Jets goal of the game to cut it to 2-1 on a 6-on-5 advantage from a delayed penalty call. Soon after Nikolaj Ehlers had been tripped inside Pittsburgh’s zone, he set up Connor, who scored from inside the face-off dot. Mark Scheifele tied it 2-2 with 2:24 remaining on the clock when he jumped on the rebound of a point shot from Colin Miller… only seconds remaining, Vladislav Namestnikov put Winnipeg in front 3-2 for their first lead of the game.
Another early goal from Pittsburgh – Lars Eller grabbed his second goal of the game at 18:21 of the third period when he beat Eric Comrie glove side from the bottom of the circle with a sharp angle shot. Adam Lowry took back Winnipeg’s lead, this time for good, at 15:40 when he tapped in a pass from Mason Appleton to make it 4-3. Grabbing his second goal of the season, Appleton extended the Jets’ lead to 5-3 at 12:19… Nino Niederreiter struck Pittsburgh’s empty net for the 6-3 final with 2:30 left in regulation.
Sidney Crosby on the effort from the Penguins, the 6-3 loss, and the Winnipeg Jets: “The effort we had today is the way we should play every night. We got to find a way to be a bit smarter… but we were definitely competing a lot more and got rewarded because of it. So, we’ve got to find a way to bring that every night,” – “They’re pretty consistent with their game. Even when we got the lead, they didn’t open up, they kept playing the same way. Credit to them. They were able to get back into it. When you get a lead like that, some teams will open up and they didn’t… we got to find a way to get that next one without giving up what we gave up.”
Notes:
– The Winnipeg Jets are the only undefeated team in the NHL this season so far.
– Eric Comrie made a total of 39 saves for the Jets.
– Alex Nedeljkovic made a total of 31 saves for the Penguins
– Bryan Little signed a one-day contract with the Jets to retire as a member of the team. He sits second in franchise history in games played (843), third in assists (304), and fourth in points (521)
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