Vilardi’s first hat trick powers Jets past Flames 5-2

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This article was published 04/04/2024 (767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

X marks the spot for the Winnipeg Jets.

By virtue of a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night at Canada Life Centre, the Jets have punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Jets, who improved to 46-24-6, have six games left in the regular season to try and catch the Colorado Avalanche (who are four points up) for second place in the Central Division.

This is merely the first step in the process, though it’s an essential one for the Jets to get to where they want to go.

It’s the sixth time in seven seasons the Jets have advanced to the postseason.

“You play 82 games to try and get an opportunity to be part of the playoffs. It’s an invitation to the dance,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. “We still want to get our game right over the next six games. We’ve been giving ourselves opportunities. If you talk to guys that have long careers and the more opportunities you can give yourself, the better. But we want our game to be in top shape heading into the first game of the playoffs, so we can try and make a run. It’s exciting to get in. I’m just excited to see the White-Out again and the energy that we all experience.”

Jets head coach Rick Bowness was happy the chase didn’t go on as long as it did last spring.

“It’s nice. We didn’t wait till the second last game of the season like last year. There was never any doubt in my mind that we’d make the playoffs this year,” said Bowness. “We’ve got a good team here. And we’ve got a good bunch of guys. So there was never any doubt. It’s nice to put that behind us. And now, we push forward.”

The Jets closed out the home stand with a record of 2-2-1 and they’ll open a four-game road trip against Central Division opponents on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center against the Minnesota Wild.

“I’m not the coach, but I’d say we’ve got to clean up things,” said Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi, who paced the offensive attack with three goals and finished with nine shots on goal. “We are having breakdowns where I feel we’re getting outworked for not a few shifts, but for the whole period and we can’t have that. There’s definitely parts of the game where we are dominating. You can see it. And then we just kind of lose it.

“We have to find a way to narrow that down. We’re not going to have a perfect 60 minutes but we can’t have 20 minutes of having Bucky stand on his head. Definitely got to clean things up. We know how good we are when we play to our standards.”

Here’s a closer look at what transpired:

1 The power play – It was a sluggish start to the first period for the Jets, who gave up a power-play marker to MacKenzie Weegar to fall behind 1-0. But after minor penalties to Flames forwards Walker Duehr and Kevin Rooney, the Jets got a boost as they evened the score with a power play marker of their own with 10 seconds left in the minor to Rooney. That goal featured a perfect slap pass by Kyle Connor to Vilardi for a nifty redirection. Vilardi added a pair of goals in the third period — including an empty-netter — to complete his first career hat trick and he’s up to 19 goals in 41 games this season.

“It’s cool. A great night for me, but a better night for the team,” said Vilardi. “Make the playoffs. Still got a long way to go. A lot of work that needs to be done still. But definitely a good night.”

Vilardi set a career-high with 23 goals last season and would likely have shattered that mark were it not for all of the time lost to injury (which is 36 games, for those of you scoring at home).

2 The hit – Flames forward Martin Pospisil is having himself a solid season with nine goals and 21 points in 56 games and he’s earned a bit of a reputation as a feisty player who throws big hits and gets under the skin of the opponent. Pospisil scored a goal on a deflection, but he was ejected from the game with 43.2 seconds to go in the second period for elbowing Morrissey. Pospisil was originally given a minor penalty on the play, but after the officials huddled together, a major was assessed and the play was reviewed. After the review, the major penalty was upheld and Pospisil was given a game misconduct. Pospisil left his feet on the hit and his elbow made contact with the head of Morrissey, who was lucky he wasn’t injured on the play.

“It is what it is. They upgraded to a five and that’s their decision. We’ll see if anything comes from it,” said Morrissey. “I missed a pass up the wall about five seconds earlier, which I would have completed and then that wouldn’t have happened. So that’s kind of how I see those things.

“In the moment, I didn’t feel like it was dirty. I just felt I got smoked and it’s my fault. It’s part of the game. When I watched it after, he kind of extends the elbow. Thankfully, it just kind of grazed my chin. Obviously, he’s got a history and the elbow was the part I feel was the reckless part of it. The league will look at it. He’s got a couple of suspensions and he’s a young guy in the league, so it’s not the best to be losing money like that.”

Pospisil has some history with the Jets, as he caught Cole Perfetti with a blindside hit during a preseason game on Sept. 27. Pospisil received a match penalty for attempting to injure. Last month, Pospisil got a three-game suspension for boarding Seattle Kraken defenceman Vince Dunn. The Jets were unable to extend their lead during the major penalty.

“That was the right call. Good on the refs to take a look at it and change their call,” said Bowness. “I think the linesman called it. That’s their job to watch out for those things as well. It was the right call. Good on them to make that change.”

3 The return (s) – Tyler Toffoli was back in the Jets lineup after sitting out Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with an illness. Toffoli skated on a line with Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton and got involved offensively almost immediately. He had scoring chances on each of his first two shifts, then found the back of the net in the second period when his pass intended for Vladislav Namestnikov went in off the stick of Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson and the skate of Weegar. For Toffoli, it was his 31st goal of the season and his 10th power play marker – which matched his career high. Toffoli had gone six games without a point and seven without a goal, so this was a welcome development for him. He finished with six shots on goal and seven shot attempts in the contest.

“He made a great play to (Appleton) in the first period. In the second period, you can tell he’s a natural goal scorer because, from the bench, he’s coming down on his off wing and he knows exactly where to put that puck and he just missed that far top shelf,” said Bowness. “You also see his poise with the puck. He knows when to release it. He doesn’t panic with his shot. He’s not forcing it. He waits for the opening to develop and then it’s on the net. That’s why he’s got 31 goals.”

Jets defenceman Colin Miller also jumped into the lineup after sitting out the past six as a healthy scratch. Miller was effective on the third pairing with Dylan Samberg and got a bit of time on the penalty kill when Neal Pionk was serving a penalty. Miller finished with just under 12 minutes of ice time and had two hits and one blocked shot.

4 The explanation – Following the morning skate, Bowness shed a bit of light on one of the reasons Jets forward Cole Perfetti saw his ice time reduced when he was moved to the fourth line.

“He hit the wall for a little bit. We all recognized it, he recognized it. He’s the first to admit it. But there does come a point where you’ve got to give him another opportunity. We know he’s got a great hockey IQ. And he’s got good hands, good vision,” said Bowness. “It’s (about) staying in the game, it’s staying in the fight. When he gets in trouble he doesn’t stop, he roams and he takes himself away from the play. If you watch the last game, he stopped and started when he needed to stay in the fight for the puck. That was a big improvement. And also defensively in OUR zone. You’re not going to score points every game, but you can’t be responsible for goals against every game. If you’re going to score and you offset it, that’s fine. So he’s improved his defensive play. He’s stopping and starting, that’s big, because then you’re in the fight, you’re not chasing the game all over the ice. Those are the two big things we were looking for.”

Perfetti got another shot in the top-6 on Thursday and chipped in another assist, feeding Nikolaj Ehlers for the go-ahead goal late in the first period.

After going through a stretch of one goal and two points in 23 games, Perfetti has two goals and four points during his past two games.

5 Extra, extra – Bowness said Jets captain Adam Lowry was pulled from the game by the concussion spotter in the third period after he took a shoulder to the jaw from Rooney.

“I just talked to him. He’s good,” said Bowness. “He was surprised they put him in that concussion protocol. But he’s fine.”

Connor Hellebuyck made his 56th start of the season on Thursday and with six games left before the playoffs begin, the Jets goalie is on track to hit 60 for the fifth time in his nine-year NHL career. Hellebuyck finished with 31 saves as he improved to 33-19-4 for the season.

The healthy scratches for the Jets were defencemen Nate Schmidt and Logan Stanley and forwards Rasmus Kupari and David Gustafsson.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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