Winnipeg Jets take Game 2 over Calgary Flames in nail biter

Despite being down two of their best players, the Winnipeg Jets evened up their series with the Calgary Flames in Game 2.

The Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets started Game 2 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs play-in round with the Flames ahead in the series by one. The Jets, however, start the second game down two of their key players. Mark Scheifele went down in the first period of the first game in a controversial play Matthew Tkachuk was a part of.

Both teams spoke out and stood up for themselves, but in the end, the NHL chose not to take any action against the Flames forward. Patrik Laine also suffered a minor injury to the hand towards the end of the previous game and did not skate today. A timeline for the return of both injured Jets is up in the air at this time.

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The game started at a great pace with both teams coming out hot and ready to get some work done. Nicholas Shore takes an early roughing penalty that ends up being the only penalty of the period.

The Jets kill the penalty then minutes later, Jansen Harkins opens up the scoring when he beat Cam Talbot with a well-placed wrist shot. The rest of the period with Calgary in the advantage in shots 10-9 and Winnipeg ahead on the scoreboard 1-0.

Tkachuk continued his newly formed rivalry by feeling out the Jets emotions even in the warmup. In the first period, he spent a lot of time around Blake Wheeler, who he fought in Game 1, following the play that injured Mark Scheifele.

The Jets continude their momentum into the second period putting the Flames on a 5-on-3 penalty kill when Zac Rinaldo and TJ Brodie find themselves in the box trying to prevent a scoring chance.

The Flames came up with a huge penalty kill but allowed another Jets goal less than a minute after their penalties expire. Adam Lowry backhanded a rebound into the back of the net and pulls the Jets ahead 2-0.

However, the Flames answered back just under the halfway point of the second period when Elias Lindholm buries a giveaway in the Jets zone. The Flames tacked on another goal on top of this with 2:31 to go in the second period when Sam Bennett tried a wraparound that rebounded off the skate of Nathan Beaulieu and goes in.

Calgary ended the period on a power play that began with a huge shot from Erik Gustafsson that rings off the post. They began the third period with 1:17 to go in their power play opportunity. Shots at the end of two still within one with Calgary once again ahead 21-20.

The score stayed even until Nikolaj Ehlers scores his first career playoff goal with a power play goal 10:24 into the third period to put the Jets ahead 3-2. Tensions stay high, with pushing and shoving after many plays and Tkachuk being the focus of many of the Jets players frustrations.

The Flames chased the Jets the rest of the period and make the last two minutes quite dramatic. Andrew Mangiapane took a late penalty with 2:31 to go in regulation with speculation that a call on Winnipeg was missed as well.

After that, the Flames pulled Cam Talbot to even up the skaters and Andrew Copp takes a slashing penalty with 38 seconds to go in the third period. The Flames penalty expires, and they are able to skate 6 on 5 with about 30 seconds to go but cannot put together a scoring chance to even it up.

The Winnipeg Jets take game two by a score of 3-2 proving that the shakeups in the lineup will not prove to be an issue for their squad. The Flames kept their advantage in shots 30-26 but struggled to keep up to the Jets in key moments in this game and spent most of it behind them on the scoreboard.

dark. Next. Play-in Round Predictions

They will need to get ahead and stay ahead to be successful going forward. Both teams have about a day to recover before the start of game three tomorrow afternoon at 4:45 p.m. (MT).

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