GAME RECAP: Jets 2, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB - Hockey can be a game of inches and that's all it took to give the Winnipeg Jets the 2-1 win at Rogers Place on Saturday night.
A harmless looking point shot towards the Oilers net by Neal Pionk and a hustle play by Kyle Connor propelled the Jets to the New Years Eve victory. The play started when the Winnipeg defender launched a gentle point shot towards Saturday's starter Jack Campbell, but Connor scaled Brett Kulak in front of the Oilers goal and managed to extend the blade of his stick to the puck, redirecting the shot at the last second behind the Oilers goaltender for the game winner.
Coming off a big victory in Seattle, but with a very tight turn around, the Oilers answered with one of their strongest defensive efforts of the season. Edmonton stymying the Jets offence for the majority of the night, holding the visitors to just 17 shots in the contest.
"I think there's been a good commitment to the defensive side of the puck," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. "I think we've done a lot of good things in our team game. That's positive."
The lone goal for the Blue & Orange was potted by Klim Kostin, who followed up his two-goal effort against the Kraken with another excellent outing on Saturday night. Unfortunately, the Oilers forward would limp off in the final shift of the game, with his status moving forward being unknown.
"I haven't gone back and seen the doctors just yet, so he's still being evaluated," Woodcroft said. "I'm sure he'll be sore after going into the boards there, but no further update for you."
In goal, the Oilers got a solid performance from Campbell who only had to make 15 saves on the evening, but made a couple high-quality stops to keep the Oilers in the contest.
"I felt good," Campbell said. "Confident, calm, kind of back to my game and I thought the guys played great. I didn't get a ton, but just nice to be back in there."
Edmonton will kickoff 2023 with a Tuesday night contest against the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place.

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FIRST BLOOD

After a near perfect start to the game for the Oilers, one little mistake let the Jets creep into the contest.
Despite flying into Edmonton in the early morning following Friday's 7-2 thumping of the Seattle Kraken, it was Winnipeg who looked like the road weary team early on. The Oilers had carried the run of play for the game's first 15 minutes and had jumped out to a 9-2 shot advantage over the Jets.
Things began to unravel when a Cody Ceci clearing attempt flew over the boards leading to a Winnipeg power play on the delay of game call. The Jets executed a quick passing play in the Oilers offensive zone with Pierre-Luc Dubois peeling around the half wall with a quick pass to Kyle Connor who slid the ensuing dish cross crease for Neal Pionk to slap behind a sliding Jack Campbell.
The defenceman's sixth goal of the season came with 4:16 left in the frame and was only the Jets third shot in the frame.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Connor Hellebuyck has been back on his Vezina winning form for the Jets this season, leading the NHL in saves and backing up the heavy workload with a .926 save percentage entering the night.
The Commerce, Michigan product was the number one reason the Oilers were unable to break through the Jets defence for the game's first two period. Hellebuyck turned aside all 20 Oilers attempts in the opening 40 minutes, but none were more impressive than his stop on the red-hot Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with seconds to spare in the middle stanza. The Oilers heaped the pressure on the Manitoba squad at the tail end of a power play, culminating in a McDavid dish to Nugent-Hopkins at the side of the Jets goals. The quick shot was deftly kicked aside by Hellebuyck to deny the Oilers sniper and cling on to Winnipeg's 1-0 advantage with eight-seconds remaining in the period.
Nugent-Hopkins was coming off one of his best performances of the season the night before, picking apart the Seattle Kraken for four assists. The bundle of helpers propelled him into a tie for eight in league scoring with 45 points, just five away from the 50 points Nugent-Hopkins recorded the last season.

PLAY OF THE GAME

With the Oilers needing a goal in the third period, Klim Kostin provided the spark.
Kostin was a night removed from his best performance as an Edmonton Oiler, picking a pair of goals against the Kraken while showing off the take no prisoners physical style that has garnered him fan-favourite status around the concourses of Rogers Place.
The play started with some dirty work off the faceoff by Mattias Janmark, who cut off two Jets defenders to the puck before tipping it into space in the slot for Kostin. From there, all the 6-foot-4 forward had to do was roof it from in tight on Hellebuyck to send the New Years eve crowd into an uproar.

"Klim come in here and you can see he's getting more responsibility and being rewarded," Tyson Barrie said post-game. "He's playing great and scoring some big goals for us. He's an incredibly talented, big Russian fellow. We're lucky to have him."

STREAK NO MORE

Connor McDavid had entered the evening with a 17-game point streak which was tied for the longest individual scoring stretch of his career, as well as a 14-game streak against the Winnipeg Jets. Both runs came to an end on Saturday night despite a plethora of chances for the Oilers superstar. The Captain's best opportunity came with 8:58 left in the second period when he one-timed a Zach Hyman dish off the goal post behind Hellebuyck.
During the run, the Oilers captain had racked up an eye popping 37 points (16G, 21A). The longest streak of the NHL season still belongs to the Maple Leafs Mitch Marner who went on a 23-game streak earlier in the year. In that run the Toronto forward registered five-less points in six-more games than McDavid who still leads the NHL with 72 points on the season.

PARTING WORDS

Head coach Jay Woodcroft's thoughts on the game:
"I thought our team played a heck of a hockey game tonight. Nobody used any excuse about the time we arrived last night. Nobody talked about back-to-back or anything like that. I thought we asserted our game right off the bat. I think the shots were 9-1 early. We didn't give up much. I thought we spent most of the game in their end. In the end, we were unable to solve their penalty kill and their goaltender."
Woodcroft on if he thought the team missed Leon Draisaitl on the power play:
"I thought he wasn't there yesterday either and our team went 2-for-2. I thought we had some looks. In the end, we didn't convert. There was one with Nugent-Hopkins at the end of the second period and there was one with Yamamoto where he hit the crossbar with eight-seconds left. I think in the game we had chances. They have a good goaltender. We were only able to get one past them today."
Woodcroft on the play of Jack Campbell tonight:
"We didn't give him much run support today. He gave up two goals today and anytime your goaltender only allows two goals, that gives your team a chance to win. I think that's a good sign in our team game. I think it works hand-in-hand with your goaltender. If he's making big saves and your team game tightening up a little bit, I think if we can continue with that process, then we'll be in a good spot as we move forward."
Tyson Barrie on the frustration of losing a game they generally dominated:
Yeah, for sure. I think we played the style of game we wanted to. I think we carried the play most of the game. Give them credit, their goalie made some big stops and Soup played great too. He gave us a chance and our power play has got to get one there. We got four chances and don't get one. That's been a strength of ours all year, and it needed to step up tonight and it just couldn't get it done."
Barrie on the Oilers game rounding into form:
"You can feel the consistency coming in our game. We didn't get the result we wanted tonight, but if we play like that most nights, we're going to be on top. and I think in Seattle. We did a good job. In Calgary, we grinded it out so we're finding some consistency to our game. We're going to get some bodies back and hopefully we can carry that going forward."
Jack Campbell on the game's result:
"We played well. It was an especially hard fought game last night. We had a big win and then the guys came out and played great tonight. Would have been nice to get two for them."