Rookie forward Brad Lambert scored his first NHL goal and backup goalie Eric Comrie made 28 saves for the red-hot Winnipeg Jets in a 5-2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Kyle Connor scored twice, including an empty-net goal, and Gabriel Valardi and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for Winnipeg (9-3-0).
Sidney Crosby and Blake Lizotte countered and Arturs Silovs made 29 saves in a losing cause for Pittsburgh (8-3-2).
Vilardi scored 15 seconds after opening puck drop while fans were still in the Canada Life Centre concourses buying food and drink. He corralled a Josh Morrissey rebound and banked the puck off Silovs into the net.
Lambert struck at 2:43 when he was parked to Silovs’ right and fellow freshman Parker Ford carried the puck behind the Penguins net and attempted a wrap around. The puck squirted through the crease for Lambert to convert.
The Jets burst out of the gate in the second period too. Namestnikov and Jonathan Toews rushed into the Penguins’ zone and, after Toews hesitated with the puck for a split second, the Russian winger deflected a pass behind Silovs at 1:17 for Namestnikov’s sixth of the season.
Connor scored on a penalty shot at 12:13 of the second. Silovs misplayed the puck in the Penguins’ corner during a Pittsburgh power play and threw his stick when Connor lunged for the puck in front of an empty net.
Connor’s backhand beat Silovs to the glove side for what was technically a short-handed goal for his seventh of the season.
Crosby scored Pittsburgh’s first goal of the game with just 12 seconds remaining in the second, when the captain deflected Erik Karlsson’s point shot behind Comrie.
The Penguins pulled within two goals just after the halfway point of the third. Lizotte crashed Comrie’s crease for his second goal of the season.
The Jets visit the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
Jets: Winnipeg’s top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi continued their torrid streak to start the season. Vilardi netted his fifth goal of the season, Connor scored his seventh and eighth goals while Scheifele recorded his 10th and 11th assists.
Penguins: The two Manitobans on Pittsburgh’s roster — Owen Pickering and Connor Dewar — were on the ice for Winnipeg’s first three goals.
The Jets set the tone in a hockey heavyweight battle when Vilardi put the home side in front just 15 seconds into the game, and after facing off against the Crosby line. It’s the quickest the Jets have scored to start a game this season.
The Penguins kept one of the NHL’s top power plays off the scoresheet in killing all three of their penalties. Coming into the contest, the Jets had scored 27.8 per cent of the time with the man advantage.
