A hot goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens spoiled the Winnipeg Jets chance of grabbing a win while hosting the NHL Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium. Jacob Fowler made 33 saves and only allowed one goal late in the third period to give Montreal a 2-1 win – handing Winnipeg their fifth straight loss. “Obviously, the third period was our best period. Their goaltender was real good, made some big stops,” said Scott Arniel. The head coach for the Jets said the team had a slow start and improved as the game went on but they couldn’t find the answer to beat Fowler for a second time. “Biggest thing for me, we didn’t have enough traffic on Fowler. We didn’t make it a little bit more difficult for him to find pucks and that’s just something we got to make sure we do a better job at.” The game was scoreless after the first period, with the Jets outshooting the Habs 10-8. However, Montreal was able to snag a pair of goals in the second period from Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle under four minutes apart and then entered the final frame up 2-0. The Jets were able to get on the board with under five minutes to play thanks to Isak Rosen’s first goal of the season. They tried to grab the equalizer late on the powerplay with the goalie pulled to make it a six on four, but Fowler and the Canadiens stood strong to secure the victory. The Jets now sit with a record of 4-4-3. Their last five losses have all been one goal games. Arniel said his team needs to work on getting into the greasy areas to try and generate offence, noting it can’t always be the skill play to put the puck in the back of the net. “It can’t be perimeter stuff. You have to get inside. Goaltending is too good in this league. If they see pucks, they’re going to stop pucks. It’s hard work and you might get smacked in the nose but that’s where the goals get scored.” These one-goal losses are coming down to one or two small details Jets’ captain Adam Lowry told the media after the game. He said the team needs to find a way to start ending up on the right side of those small details. “We just got to find a way to work our way out of it,” said Lowry. “I thought in the third we did a really good job of being direct, getting on pucks, creating turnovers, whether that’s off the forecheck or on the lines, and being aggressive and really generated some chances. That’s the way we need to play for a full 60.” It was the first game in a Winnipeg Jets jersey for Dawson Mercer, who was just acquired from the New Jersey Devils in the trade for Connor Hellebuyck. Mercer said being part of the Heritage Classic for his first game was a “pretty cool experience.” “Overall, nice to get going with the guys right away and then build on it from here,” said Mercer. There wasn’t much preparation prior to the game for Mercer, as he said he had a skate on Saturday with the team and then reviewed some video. He is looking forward to getting more practice time under his belt and learning the systems better as the season goes on. “There’s a few things I probably could have done different, just to adjust to the system, but like I said, we’ll get to that in the next week.” As for how he looked in his first game as a Jet, Arniel said he looked good in his debut. “That is the player I remember coaching against him in the east there. He’s got good hands, good on the forecheck, saw that shot block. He’s not afraid to do that. He’s a complete player. He’s one of those guys that you can plug and play in a lot of different situations,” said Arniel. The Jets will have the day off on Monday and then return to action Tuesday, hosting the Florida Panthers.
