WINNIPEG — The way Mark Scheifele reached the 300th goal plateau was as clutch as it was classic.
The Winnipeg Jets’ top line of Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi had been snake-bitten for the first 59 minutes of Friday night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. They had no shortage of chances — generating 12 scoring chances before the final minute of regulation — but Chicago’s netminder Arvid Soderblom and a couple of rings off the crossbar prevented them from converting.
“Sometimes it takes 59 minutes to put one home and bring it to overtime,” Scheifele said.
During a six-on-five sequence with just 1:06 remaining in the third period, Scheifele opened the floodgates.
After Nikolaj Ehlers wheeled around the bottom of the right faceoff circle and shot the puck off Soderblom’s pad, Scheifele, situated in the slot, pounced on the rebound on his backend as he was falling, tying the game 1-1. It was a trademark sequence for the 31-year-old, who often feasts off being in the right place at the right time. Scheifele, a long-time client of Hall-of-Famer turned skill-guru Adam Oates, is a student of the game. You’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint a time when he’s not staying out after practice to work tirelessly on an incredibly specific, game-related drill that the naked eye oftentimes can’t appreciate.
His subsequent overtime winner was a prime example of his calculated approach.
30 seconds into overtime, he won a faceoff cleanly back to Josh Morrissey. Morrissey dished it back to Scheifele, who had crept over to the left side of the ice. He carried the puck to the top of the faceoff circle, drawing both Alex Vlasic and Philipp Kurashev towards him before dishing it back to Connor. In turn, he essentially set a pick on Kurashev, creating a breakdown in Chicago’s defensive coverage.
“It brought me back to my basketball days — a little pick and roll,” Scheifele said.
He peeled off to the slot and re-directed a Connor pass into the net.
Game. Set. Match.
“Oatesy will be pumped about that one, for sure,” he said before cracking a smile.
Scheifele has been excellent through Winnipeg’s first two games, registering team-highs in points (four), faceoff percentage (55.2) and five-on-five scoring chances (eight).
Ehlers Needs Help
Winnipeg’s second line of Ehlers, Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti struggled for a second straight game. It’ll be interesting to see how long Arniel keeps that trio together. So far, it just hasn’t worked.
Ehlers, the driver of that line, is at his best when open space is created for him.
But it’s hard to do that when your two linemates are on different wavelengths. Perfetti isn’t a fast skater and can’t play at Ehlers’ pace, whether in transition or the offensive zone. Namestnikov is a beautiful skater who can do some heavy lifting along the walls, but his offensive acumen isn’t up to par with Ehlers.
Arniel brought out the line blender near the midway mark of the third period, placing Ehlers alongside Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton and then Nino Niederreiter alongside Perfetti and Namestnikov.
“I did it for what, two shifts?” Arniel said. “All I was trying was I wanted to get Nino to get out to get to the net front with (Namestnikov and Perfetti). I was trying to get (Ehlers) some space because it was (Connor Bedard) a lot of the times against (Lowry), and I was just trying to open (Ehlers) up a little bit — (Appleton) and (Lowry) kind of open up some space.”
The 28-year-old Danish winger pushed back when Sportsnet.ca pointed out the line’s struggles.
“I don’t totally agree with your view on our line to start,” Ehlers said. “We had a lot of good chances. We’re trying to find our way. Our last couple of games together haven’t been good but we took a step in the right direction.”
It may be a little while before we see Arniel totally change the lines permanently. He likes the configuration of his first and third lines while also expressing, right from the get-go of camp, that he wants to see the Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers trio together.
Notwithstanding the small sample size, there’s no denying that Ehlers’ best moments from Friday were at times when he wasn’t alongside Perfetti and Namestnikov. And you bet that’s something the Jets are keeping an eye on.
Other Takeaways
• Scheifele’s game-tying goal wouldn’t have been made possible if Neal Pionk hadn’t made a heads-up defensive play to prevent an empty-netter. With just over a minute remaining in regulation, Pionk checked Ilya Mikheyev into the boards after the Blackhawks forward picked off the puck and skated up the ice, allowing Ehlers to steal it back.
“The biggest thing is he attacked the puck,” Arniel said. “He didn’t back up because their guy had to get to the red line. If he waits and backs up, they might make another play or the guy takes a shot at the net. The kid didn’t want to ice the puck, and (Pionk) did a great job of attacking him. He stopped that there and gave us a chance to get it back and get in and get the faceoff.”
Pionk also had a highlight-reel-worthy hip check on Connor Bedard.
• Scheifele has joined Dale Hawerchuk as the only other player to have scored 300 goals in a Jets uniform.
