Niederreiter scores twice for Jets in 5-2 pre-season win over Flames

The Winnipeg Jets' Nikolaj Ehlers scores against Calgary Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf in Winnipeg on Oct. 2, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

The Winnipeg Jets turned hard work on the power play into a key goal in a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames in an NHL pre-season game Wednesday.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored Winnipeg’s first goal with the man advantage to tie the game 1-1 midway through the first period.

"We’ve been working on it and there’s still some things that we need to figure out," Ehlers said. "Overall, we created a lot of chances today and when we lost (the puck), we’re doing everything we could to get it back. That was very positive.”

Nino Niederreiter scored twice and Gabriel Vilardi had three assists for Winnipeg. Simon Lundmark and Kyle Connor each scored a goal and Mark Scheifele contributed a pair of assists to the win.

Niederreiter broke a 2-2 tie with a go-head goal from the front of Calgary's net at 6:28 of the third period.

"That is (Niederreiter’s) office," Ehlers said. "He thrives in there. To get a guy like that going, that’s exciting for us."

Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves in his second pre-season start for Winnipeg (2-2-1).

Winnipeg iced mostly a veteran lineup, while the Flames were evaluating players on their roster bubble.

Martin Frk and Justin Kirkland scored for Calgary.

Expected regular-season starter Dustin Wolf made 22 saves in his third pre-season appearance for the Flames (5-1-1).

"I think we hung in there for two periods pretty well,” Flames assistant coach Brad Larsen said. "I thought we did a lot of good things and we just ran out of gas there in the third.”

Veteran defenceman Tyson Barrie, who signed a professional tryout contract with Calgary, played a team-high 21 minutes 24 seconds in his fourth pre-season game.

He was paired with Kevin Bahl, who made his Flames debut after his acquisition in a June trade with the New Jersey Devils for goaltender Jacob Markstrom.

“It felt good. Kind of felt surreal, just changing it up and being with another team,” said Bahl, whose lower-body injury kept him out of earlier pre-season games.

Bahl felt chemistry with his defensive partner Barrie.

"He’s really smart and he’s just very poised out there,” Bahl said.

A 2-2 tie after the first period remained that way heading into the third.

Frk’s tip of Jake Bean’s shot from the point put the visitors on the scoreboard first at 8:04 of the opening period, but the Jets responded with two quick goals.

Ehlers beat Wolf at 10:47 for a power-play goal.

“Real good, quick puck movement,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said. “That was kind of the reason we kind of want to see Nik in that hole there. That was a pretty quick shot he got off.”

Niederreiter made it 2-1 at 12:21 when he lifted a backhand shot past Wolf.

But Kirkland made Winnipeg pay for a turnover and beat Hellebuyck with two minutes left in the opening period.

Lundmark gave the Jets a 4-2 lead at 14:17 of the third period and Connor scored on Wolf just over two minutes later.

Up next

Both teams conclude their pre-season schedules with a rematch Friday in Calgary.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 2, 2024