Three things - Jets blank Oilers 2-0

PENTICTON – The Winnipeg Jets closed out the 2024 Young Stars Classic with a 2-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers to finish the three-game tournament 2-1.

Daniel Torgersson and Henri Nikkanen scored for the Jets, Thomas Milic and Dom DiVincentiis combined to stop all 27 Oiler shots for the shutout.

1. MILIC SOLID TOURNAMENT

The Moose goaltender stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced in the five periods that he played including a perfect 19-for-19 this afternoon. Milic was a big part of the Moose qualifying for the AHL playoffs last spring and wants to build off that performance in his second pro campaign.

“Felt super comfortable out there and the guys were willing to step into the lanes for me. Forechecking hard, keeping them on their heels,” said Milic.

“Made Dom and my job easy, obviously he took over in the towards the end there and kept it rolling.”

2. BIG DAY FOR TORGERSSON

The Jets came to this tournament with a more experienced roster led by three players who are in Penticton for a third time. Brad Lambert, Henri Nikkanen and Daniel Torgersson had some high expectations placed on them to play well. Torgersson, who the Jets drafted in the second round back in 2020 scored his first goal of the weekend and was driving play alongside Nikkanen and Mark Liwiski.

“Yeah, it felt like I had a great start was involved in pretty much everything when we were on the ice,” said Torgersson.

“Felt like let’s keep moving on that and I felt a little tired in the legs today and I was just trying to be involved around the puck as much as possible. I’m one of those guys that want to have the puck out there.”

3. YAGER FITTING IN

Fans wanted to see how one of the newest Jets prospects was going to fit in with this team and from the start of the weekend, Brayden Yager was impressive. The last two games he centred the second line with Colby Barlow and Nikita Chibrikov. But most importantly, he felt more comfortable every game that he played in.

“Obviously there is no better way to bond with the guys than on the ice, I thought that was really good. I think we grew as a group throughout the whole tournament,” said Yager.

“First couple of games were kind of tough. One or two practices and then right into a game and kind of you are kind of just playing off instincts. I thought as we got into today’s game it was a lot better, I thought we had a lot more sustained pressure in the offensive zone.”