GAME RECAP: Jets 5, Oilers 0

WINNIPEG, MB – Netminder Calvin Pickard made 20 saves, but the offence of the Edmonton Oilers in front of him couldn't crack the Winnipeg Jets and goaltender Laurent Brossoit in a 5-0 defeat in pre-season action at Canada Life Centre on Monday night.

"It's always a good opportunity to play 60 minutes," Pickard said post-game. "I thought we really battled hard tonight. The wheels kind of came off in the third, but I'm proud of the guys. It was it was a really good effort against a solid roster over there."

The Oilers battled in front of Pickard, trailing 1-0 after Kyle Connor opened the scoring on the power play at 4:54 of the opening period, but a veteran Jets side that dressed a strong lineup that included Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and defencemen Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk took over in the third period with four goals in the final frame.

"I thought were right there through the first 40 minutes of that game," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We were competing well, and then I thought we ran out of gas a little bit. In that third period, we started to turn the puck over and they made us pay for some mistakes."

The Oilers continue their pre-season schedule on Wednesday when they host the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place.

"We didn't help ourselves, but we're going to take the good from this game and move on to our next home game on Wednesday night."

FIRST PERIOD

Pickard was put to the test early by the Jets and their power play, which was ultimately able to break the deadlock just past the five-minute mark of the opening frame.

The Oilers survived an early man advantage for Winnipeg, with Pickard looking strong and making a couple of crucial saves after Noel Hoefenmayer was forced into taking a professional slashing penalty to prevent Rasmus Kupari – a part of the off-season trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois from Winnipeg to the Los Angeles Kings with Gabe Vilardi and Alex Iaffalo – from capitalizing on a wide-open back-door pass from Vladislav Namestnikov.

The bulk of Edmonton's offence in the opening frame flowed through the effective line of professional tryout Adam Erne, Brad Malone and Raphael Lavoie, who's knocking on the door of the NHL after posting 25 goals and 20 assists for the AHL's Bakersfield Condors last season.

Erne intercepted a careless pass from a Jets defender in their defensive zone before taking it toward the Winnipeg crease, but the former Detroit Red Wings skater couldn't keep hold of the puck with pressure arriving from behind him. The forward and his line were soon back at it, generating a trio of chances off another turnover in Winnipeg's end after Erne forced a turnover that led to clean looks for Lavoie and Malone before the puck was redirected over the glass.

Erne and Malone also served as Edmonton's primary penalty killers, but the Jets eventually broke through on their second opportunity with the man advantage.

Kyle Connor buried the game's opening goal at 4:57 of the first period when the former 47-goal scorer for Winnipeg in '20-21 received a no-look pass from Gabe Vilardi and buried it into the open net from the left circle with Lavoie in the box for high-sticking, but it was the stick of centre Jayden Grubbe that actually caused the infraction.

Mark Schefele picked up the secondary helper on the opening goal with the first pass from the top of the zone, with the Oilers penalty kill going 1-for-2 in the opening frame.

SECOND PERIOD

Thanks to some more stellar goaltending from Pickard, Edmonton remained only down a goal through 40 minutes of play.

The veteran of 433 professional games – 38 of those in Bakersfield during the '22-23 AHL season, where he finished with a 23-13-2 record, 2.70 goals-against average and .912 save percentage – flashed the glove on centre David Gustafsson just past the midway mark of the middle frame to keep the score 1-0 after the Oilers failed to relieve pressure off a clearing attempt.

Edmonton had its best opportunity to even things up on a two-on-one between Xavier Bourgault and Noel Hoefenmayer with 3:35 remaining before the second intermission, but after Hoefenmayer tried to feed a return pass to Bourgault at the back door for a tap-in goal, the blade of Jets defenceman Elias Salomonsson prevented the Oilers 2021 first-round pick from completing the play.

The Oilers led 18-15 in shots through 40 minutes, but still found themselves behind 1-0 on the scoreboard.

"Tonight I thought we got some good experience in a tough building to play in," Woodcroft said. "Like I said, it was a one-nothing hockey game. Through 40 minutes, were out-shooting them. The other team only gave up 15 shots, and then penalty trouble and some turnovers caught up to us."

THIRD PERIOD

Jets defenceman Neal Pionk's point shot found its way through traffic early in the third period to extend Winnipeg's lead, but not without a look at the video monitors first by the Oilers coaching staff.

As Seth Griffith fell in front of Pickard after Morgan Barron barrelled through the slot toward the Edmonton crease, Pionk unleashed a hard slap shot that eluded the bodies between it and the goal before nestling into the net. But the potential for a high stick looked to be in play. However, the Oilers bench neglected to try and challenge, so Winnipeg took the 2-0 lead with over 18 minutes remaining in regulation.

It looked more like it wasn't going to be Edmonton's night when Cody Ceci had a dangerous opportunity trickle through the arm of former Oilers netminder Laurent Brossoit, who re-signed in Winnipeg this offseason for his second stint with the club, but the Oilers rearguard had the puck cleared off the goal line.

Inside the 10-minute mark of the final frame, another point shot would ultimately seal the victory for the Jets and the pre-season sweep of the home-and-away series when David Gustafsson perfectly deflected Logan Stanley's shot from the blueline over Pickard's right shoulder.

Barron made it a 4-0 score with an open look from the slot that beat Pickard over the right pad before Kyle Capobianco made it a five spot for the Jets on the power play, sniping one top shelf through traffic in the game's final five minutes.

"We were in the box three times that period, and it just took more and more juice out of us," Woodcroft said. "In the end, some of their dangerous shooters made us pay. But in terms of the compete level of our kids, I thought we got a lot out of them tonight."

PARTING WORDS

Woodcroft on managing emotions during a difficult Training Camp and preseason:

"I think what we're trying to do is arm them with the tools that they're going to need to be successful. We have realistic expectations of where certain players are at and what we want to see out of them during preseason hockey, like you said, it's about getting some people some experience. I think some of our younger players got some great experience here going against some of the top players in the National Hockey League. So, that's all nice and dandy, but you got to learn your lessons from experience. That's how you grow. But as I said, in terms of the effort and the compete, I thought it was there tonight. Some of our lack of execution showed up as the game wore on, but I couldn't fault the effort."

Pickard on his first 60 minutes of work this preseason:

"Yeah, it's always good to get work. I got that tonight. Obviously, it kind of fell off at the end. You'd like to have maybe a couple of those goals, but it's still the first game of the year and preseason to work out the kinks and we'll get better moving forward."

Erne on playing in his first game on a professional tryout:

"It's been great. The guys have been awesome and really welcoming. Same with the coaches and all the staff. For me, I want to be on a team that's going to win, so that was a big part of my decision to come here on a PTO like you said, and just show them what I got. I think they wanted me for the game I play, so I'm not going to change that."