Winnipeg Jets begin season with 4-3 OT loss to Boston

What promises to be a very interesting season of Winnipeg Jets hockey got off to an exciting start Friday night at Canada Life Centre.

After a back-and-forth affair that featured strong goaltending, a record-extending goal and even a fight, overtime was required to solve things between the home side and the visiting Boston Bruins.

Unfortunately for the home fans, JJ Peterka scored with 1:39 left in the OT session to lift Boston to a 4-3 win.

The Jets came out firing, outshooting the Bruins 8-1 over the first six minutes. They had a power play that nearly broke the ice and had several good looks to score, including a great net drive by rookie Viggo Bjorck that forced Jeremy Swayman to make an acrobatic cross-crease save.

Not long after, Winnipeg opened the scoring thanks to an unlikely source.

Morgan Barron collected a loose puck behind the Boston net and slid it back to the point for Dylan DeMelo. He one-timed a wobbly puck and it knuckled past Jeremy Swayman at the 4:52 mark.

It was just his 17th goal in his 460th regular season game as a Jet.

Just over two minutes later, the other Jet making his NHL debut got involved.

Tyrel Bauer, well-known for dropping the gloves in the AHL with the Manitoba Moose, fought Mark Kastelic at the end of his second NHL shift, bloodying the Bruins tough guy in the process.

At this point, the crowd was having a great time, but momentum would soon swing in Boston’s favour.

The Bruins got on the board with a goal that was quite similar to DeMelo’s. Morgan Geekie tracked down a loose puck along the far boards in the Jets’ end before sending a short pass to Hampus Lindholm. The big blueliner blasted a knuckler from the point that dipped under the glove of Stuart Skinner and into the net at the 9:23 mark.

With just under five minutes to go in the first, Boston would take the lead. The Bruins passed the puck around the top half of Winnipeg’s end before Kastelic got it in the slot. He deked towards the net and wasn’t able to beat Skinner but the puck slid to James Hagens on the other side of the crease and he jammed it home for his first NHL goal in his fourth career game.

Boston would take the 2-1 lead into the second after Winnipeg outshot them 12-9 in the opening 20 minutes.

But it wouldn’t take long for the Jets to level the score in the second.

Mere seconds after Elias Lindholm was called for tripping, Kyle Connor had the puck at the faceoff dot and slid it down low to Cole Perfetti. Perfetti took in front and tried to jam it home, creating a scramble that resulted in the puck finding the stick of Connor, who shot it through Swayman to tie the game 1:50 into the second.

This marked the ninth straight season-opener in which Connor found the back of the net, extending his NHL record.

The Jets had to kill two penalties of their own before the period was through and did so successfully, leading to a go-ahead goal in the waning seconds from another unlikely source.

The play began with Connor skating the puck into the Boston zone and almost losing it before it drifted into the slot and found the stick of Adam Lowry. The captain then sent it back to Mario Ferraro at the point, and his wrist shot eluded Swayman to make it 3-2 with 12 seconds left in the period.

Ferraro, playing in his first game as a Jet, scored 24 times in 490 games as a Shark.

The Jets had a good chance to add to their lead on a power play with eight minutes gone in the third but were unable to get one past Swayman.

Boston, meantime, started to pepper Skinner with shots as they attempted to tie the game, even hitting the post with roughly seven minutes left but the new Jets netminder stood tall.

The Bruins pulled Swayman for an extra attacker with 2:35 on the clock, and just under a minute later, they found the equalizer.

After Boston won an offensive zone faceoff, David Pastrnak got the puck along the boards and fired the puck to the slot where Elias Lindholm steered it past Skinner to level the score with 1:38 left, sending the game to overtime.

Connor nearly won it when he dangled two Bruins but his subsequent shot hit the post.

Later in the extra frame, Peterka got behind the Jets’ defence and buried one five-hole on Skinner to end it.

Game two of the Jets’ season goes Sunday afternoon in Detroit. The puck drops just after noon with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting at 10 a.m.