The injury plagued Winnipeg Jets were no match for the Calgary Flames Tuesday night as they lost Game 3, 6-2 and trail the Flames, 2-1, in the series.
Cam Talbot made 33 saves. to back up the offense for the win.
The Flames scored three times on the power play.
“I thought that our power play had a huge bounce-back tonight,” Calgary head coach Geoff Ward said. “I thought our players did a really good job in terms of being more prepared for what we were going to see. It’s just one game, but I thought our response from our power play people was good today, and obviously it’s a huge factor in the hockey game.”
Nikolaj Ehlers potted the game’s first marker to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
“We’re not coming to the rink for Game 4 with a feeling that we’ve let something slip away,” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said. “From the first five minutes of that game we’ve been fighting and trying. It hasn’t been easy for us, we’re not moving the puck the way we’d like to, for sure. But if there’s one thing I have confidence in, I think the compete’s going to be as good as we’ve got. What they leave on the ice in Game 4 will be all they have.
Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund and Sean Monahan, replied to give the Jets a 3-1 lead.
“I thought it was a good period by us, in the second,” Backlund said. “I thought we took a big step. We separated ourselves from the Jets. I thought we did a really good job on that in the second.”
Andrew Copp scored the Jets’ second goal to make the scored 3-2.
“We need to win one game. That’s it,” Jets Blake Wheeler said. “There’s no magic to it. It would be the same mentality had we won today. We were looking to win the next game no matter what. We just have to learn from this one and come back tomorrow with a positive attitude and get ready for a huge game. A lot to be excited for.”
Milan Lucic and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Flames.
“I thought tonight it was a complete team effort,” Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “The guys who are expected to score, scored. The guys expected to make great plays made great plays. The guy who is expected to save the puck, he did that as well. I felt today was a true team win. There wasn’t one guy tonight who had an off game. I thought everybody played their best game of the series tonight.”
Johnny Gaudreau added a late empty net goal.
Game 4 will be Thursday.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves in the loss.
“It’s going to be everything for me,” Hellebuyck said. “I’ve got to use this, and I plan on using this. This was an upset for me tonight. I don’t see it being easy for them at all for the rest of the series, so they better scratch and claw for everything that they get.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.