Coming off a seven-day absence with eight players in COVID protocol, you could have forgiven the Winnipeg Jets if they came up short in Detroit.
Instead, the Jets’ Michigan-born players rose to the occasion and the young players called into action performed admirably in a 3-0 Winnipeg win.
Ann Arbor’s Andrew Copp got the road side on the board first, beating Alex Nedeljkovic from below the goal line. Dylan Samberg picked up an assist on the play for his first NHL point in his first NHL game.
Despite missing regulars Nikolaj Ehlers, Paul Stastny, Brendan Dillon and Logan Stanley, the Jets looked crisp, their transition game opening up all kinds of space in the first period, but they were unable to build on their lead.
Just past the midway point of the second, however, a breakthrough. With the Wings on the power play, Shelby Township’s Kyle Connor found a streaking Copp who picked the top shelf to give Winnipeg a 2-0 lead.
Detroit tried to push in the third period, but the Jets defence held strong, though with 4:29 to go, the Wings found themselves on a 5-on-3 and pulled the goalie to double up the Jets in man-power.
The Winnipeg penalty kill got the job done. After killing off the first minor penalty, Connor buried an empty netter to seal the win. The Jets killed off all five Detroit power plays on the night.
Commerce’s Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 33 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career.
Samberg played nearly 18 minutes in his NHL debut, picking up an assist. Declan Chisholm also made his NHL debut on the blueline, registering four shots on goal in 13:44 of icetime.
Cole Perfetti also held his own playing on a line with Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois while Austin Poganski played over 11 minutes in his Jets debut, 24 hours after scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 2-0 win for the Manitoba Moose in Milwaukee.
The Jets don’t play again until Tuesday night in Washington.