EDMONTON – The Winnipeg Jets were coming off one of their best games of the season over the weekend and were looking to continue that strong play on this two-game swing through Alberta before the Christmas break.
Monday night they faced the Edmonton Oilers who were looking to extend their home winning streak to seven in a row.
The Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead and rode a hot goalie for a very big 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Both teams sit eight points back of the Nashville for the final wild card spot, but the Oilers see themselves just one point behind Vancouver for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division.
The Jets didn’t lose this game over lack of effort as they dominated the play for the final two periods as they ended up out shooting the Oilers 45-21 , including 16-3 in the third period.
Cam Talbot, who was acquired to be the number one goalie in Edmonton, struggled early on this season but lately he is showing why they brought him in. He made 44 stops tonight including numerous candidates to be high light of the night. He was named the game’s first star.
“He was tremendous, he was really good,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said of Talbot. “Minute 1 through Minute 60, he was easily our best player. He looked very confident, he made some incredible saves and we were very, very fortunate to have him tonight.”
The Oilers got a huge night from the line of Taylor Hall, Leon Draisaitl, and Teddy Purcell who did all the damage tonight. Hall had three helpers, Draisaitl had two assists and Purcell had his seventh and eighth of the year along with an assist. Justin Schultz had the other Oilers goal his 1st of the season.
“He was tremendous, he was really good,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said of Talbot. “Minute 1 through Minute 60, he was easily our best player. He looked very confident, he made some incredible saves and we were very, very fortunate to have him tonight.”
The Jets were 0-for-5 on the power play but did have numerous chances with the man advantage but couldn’t find any leaks in the Talbot wall. His glove hand was red hot and his pads didn’t seem to give out many rebounds on this night.
The Jets’ lone goal came off the stick of Bryan Little who batted in a lucky bounce off the back boards into the net for his 13th of the season.
“Some nights you have it and some nights you don’t, and tonight I had it,” Talbot said. “I’ve been feeling really good lately. It started in Boston [3-2 win against Bruins]. I had a couple of weeks off to work on some things and when I got my chance, I wanted to make sure I was ready for it. I feel that I did that, I put in a lot of extra work over those two weeks, and I feel like it’s starting to pay off and hopefully I can continue to carry it through after the Christmas break.”
Connor Hellebuyck started the game for the Jets in goal but was pulled after giving up 3 goals on 14 shots; he was replaced by Michael Hutchinson who stopped all 7 shots he faced.
“Talbot played an amazing game, he definitely stole those two points for them,” Hutchinson said. “We picked up right where we left off after playing the [New York] Rangers (5-2 win on Friday). We had a ton of scoring chances and probably could have found the back of the net a couple more times. We didn’t lose a step from that game to this one. It was nice to see us getting that many chances on net. You don’t see too many games where you throw 45 shots on net and don’t come away with the two points. If we keep playing like this, we are going to have success down the stretch.”
The Jets need to bring this exact type of game to Calgary tomorrow if they want to get back to Winnipeg with a split.
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