Following each game of the Jets-Ducks series, Kristina Rutherford will be providing her post-game takeaways for sportsnet.ca. Follow her on Twitter @KrRutherford
One thousand, five hundred and forty-four days is a long time. It’s four years and just shy of three months. And that’s how long it had been since Winnipeg Jets defenceman Adam Pardy, a 31-year-old Newfoundlander with a scruffy blonde beard, had scored an NHL goal.
Then, on Saturday night in Anaheim, the guy from tiny Bonavista orchestrated a toe-drag, shot-on-net, grab-your-own-rebound, wraparound to put the Jets up 1-0.
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Pardy yelled “Woo!” for a really long time and did about 10 fist-pumps, as one would after scoring his first-ever playoff goal. Then teammates mobbed him in a mini pile-on. While the refs reviewed the play—the Ducks’ Ryan Kesler pushed Lee Stempniak in the net, and he got in the way of goalie Frederik Andersen—Pardy sat on the bench, grinning like a kid in a candy shop. He got a lot of head pats. He swigged water and grinned some more. He looked about 12 years old, then. And the goal was good.
It’s the fifth NHL goal of Pardy’s career. He was a game-time decision to play Saturday night. As Jets’ assistant coach Charlie Huddy put it, “It was a good call to get him in.” Indeed.
But then, for the second time this week, the Anaheim Ducks spoiled a beauty of a storyline.
In Game 1, they stormed back in the third period to delay the Jets’ first playoff win in nearly two decades.
In Game 2, they replicated the effort of two nights ago. It felt familiar, the way they came on in the third. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff had his hand over his mouth as he watched the Ducks press, late in the period.
Tied at 1, with 21 seconds on the clock, Jakob Silfverberg, a 24-year-old Swede with a quick trigger, scored the winner on a wrist shot. Cheveldayoff kept that hand over his mouth. Coach Paul Maurice leaned his head back and stared at the clock.
“It probably was one of my bigger ones,” Silfverberg said, of the goal. “Obviously a great feeling, seeing that one go in.”
Obviously.
Third period giants
The big lesson of the night: The Jets would fare far better if we could eliminate the third period.
The Ducks are masters of the comeback, and scored two goals in the third after a scoreless first two. The Jets out-shot the Ducks 12 to five in the second. They even kept Corey Perry, who had four points in the series opener, off the score sheet all night.
But again the Ducks took over in the third, capitalized on a power play to tie things up, a penalty called on captain Andrew Ladd, who got his stick up on Ryan Getzlaf during a meaningless play along the boards. The resulting goal was a double-tipped point-shot from Cam Fowler that went off the glove of Patrick Maroon. Ladd let out a big exhale on his way out of the box.
Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau—who did a double fist-pump in the air about nine minutes after that when the game-winner went in, then composed himself—can’t tell you why the Ducks are able to turn it on in the third.
“I wish I had an answer, then I’d bottle it up,” Boudreau said, in the post-game press conference. “You just believe you can do it. A lot of times, that propels you to do it.”
Pavelec the story for Jets
Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec has to be exceptional if the Jets are going to win this series. He was beyond exceptional on Saturday night. He was the story for the Jets, with 37 saves.
Pavelec made some ridiculous outstretched-pads, combination saves. He shut guys down on breakaways. He deserved the win.
“They know how to play those games in the third period,” Pavelec told reporters, post-game. “They show us. They show us.”
Stripes got in the way
The referees were a factor Saturday. They didn’t call a too-many-men penalty on the Ducks in the third, and just before he scored, Silfverberg held the stick of Bryan Little, and the Jets’ centreman fell to the ice. No call. They let a lot go in the third period on both sides with the game tied at 1.
Speaking of the third period, this Ducks comeback thing is starting to feel tired. But you know what isn’t? Seeing Getzlaf step out of his Batman car with the doors that swoop up. Words don’t do it justice.
Getzlaf probably won’t have wheels that sweet the next time we see him. The series moves to Winnipeg Monday night for Game 3. The atmosphere is going to be insane. A White Out is planned. This is what Winnipeg has been waiting for, for 19 years.
And perhaps that long-awaited first playoff win for the Jets Version 2.0 will come at home.
“By the time that puck drops in Winnipeg, we’ll have put this behind us,” an unsmiling Maurice said in the post-game presser. “The things that we can do better, we’ll deal with those, and use the energy in our building to get us back going.”
Said Boudreau: “I gotta believe it’s gonna be a little more ramped up come Monday night. If I was Winnipeg, I’d be pretty excited about playing at home.”
