Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 24, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C1 SPORTS SPORTS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM MONDAY JANUARY 24, 2022 CONNECT WITH MANITOBA’S BEST SPORTS COVERAGE SECTION C▼ MATT FREED/PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE/TNS Penguins captain Sidney Crosby scores on Connor Hellebuyck in the shootout Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. It proved to be the winner. Pittsburgh strikes quickly in third frame, wins in shootout Pens’ quick deuce jolts Jets P ITTSBURGH — The Winni-peg Jets played a total of 59 minutes and 51 seconds of terrific regulation-time hockey on Sunday afternoon, keeping one of the NHL’s most potent teams completely in check. Problem is, the game is 60 minutes in length. And what happened in those other nine very painful seconds ulti- mately cost the club a precious point. A 2-0 third-period lead vanished in basically the blink of an eye as the Pittsburgh Penguins sprang to life, pot- ted a pair and ultimately skated away with a 3-2 shootout victory at PPG Paints Arena. Talk about a gut punch. “You know, the game goes from a shutout and what should be a shutout to an overtime shootout loss. It sucks,” is how Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck summed it up, no doubt feeling the sting even more since his puck-handling blun- der led directly to the tying goal. “It felt like we deserved to win.” Indeed, a solid argument could be made that Jets got the short of the hockey stick in this one. But such is life right now for a fragile team that wraps up a tough four-game road trip without a victory, going 0-2-2. “I thought we played a real solid game. We had a nine second lapse where they scored two goals,” said interim head coach Dave Lowry. “We came into this game, we played with a purpose, we played with a great level of desper- ation, we generated opportunities, and like I said, it’s nine seconds that end up hurting you.” The week began with Winnipeg racing out to a 2-0 first period lead in Washington on Tuesday, only to fall 4-3 in overtime. They followed that up with a 5-2 loss in Nashville on Thursday, then opened the scoring in Boston on Saturday afternoon before dropping a 3-2 decision in regulation. Facing a mighty, rested Penguins team now back to full health with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, this had the potential to get ugly. Except it was the road-weary Jets who controlled the play for most of the day, including making the Penguins pay a physical price nearly every time they touched the puck. Brenden Dillon bloodied Teddy Blueger with a huge hit in the opening frame. Nathan Beaulieu rocked Brock McGinn, then got the best of Brian Boyle in an ensuing scrap. All told, Winnipeg outhit the hosts by a whopping 47-19 total, obliterating their single-game high this season which had been 39. Neal Pionk had nine hits alone, the most by any Jets player this year. “They are a good team. They have a lot of speed and a lot of skill. Usually those kinds of teams don’t want to play that kind of game. I think we had a focus of using our forecheck and our size. We were able to create some chances from it,” Dillon said of the rock ‘em, sock ‘em approach. “As a whole, that’s something that when we are playing to our strengths, although we have a lot of speed, we have some physicality too, and usually can open up some space when that happens.” In addition to the guys at the other end of the rink, the Jets also hit the net early. Captain Blake Wheeler took a feed from Mark Scheifele and burying his second goal of the year just 3:28 into the game. It was just the kind of start they were looking for playing for a second time in 22 hours. Winnipeg took a 2-0 lead at 8:11 of the second when Kyle Connor fired a perfect wrist shot on the power play, just under the crossbar, for his team-leading 22nd. Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry had made a half-dozen five alarm saves up to that point, and also had help from a couple posts along the way. As the game crept into the final frame, and the visitors showed no signs of wearing down, it seemed like that might be enough to get out of town with a big win. But then disaster struck in about the time it takes to say “What the heck just happened?” First up was Malkin passing a puck to teammate Kasperi Kapanen that went off his skate and beat a surprised Hellebuyck at 6:55. That certainly gave the Penguins, and their fans, some momentum. They didn’t need long to capitalize on it, as a dumped-in puck off the ensuing faceoff was stopped behind the net by Hellebuyck, who tried to rim it around the boards and put it right on the stick of Jeff Carter. The veteran immediately shot it back, finding enough of the open net before Hellebuyck could get back and seal it off. “The first one goes off a skate. I made a pretty good push at it, but you can’t really expect it to go off a skate. I’m ex- pecting a stick, and that’s a good foot or two away from where I’m expecting that puck to go. Which stinks,” said Hellebuy- ck, who started an 11th straight game and 25th of the last 27. “The second one, I just had a late deci- sion, because it looked like it was going to be icing for a second.” Although there were some nervous moments to follow, the Jets managed to right the ship and get it to overtime, for what was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining three-on-three competi- tions you’ll see. “It was a blast. You had everything from scoring chances to great defen- sive plays to big saves, physicality and stuff after the whistle,” said Dillon. “It was an emotional game and both sides understood how big the points were. You almost wish there could have been a bit more overtime so we could have had it settled that way.” Off to a shootout they went, where Crosby was the only one who managed to light the lamp. He actually took a slashing penalty just as the five minutes of overtime ended, but there’s no NHL rule that causes it to carry over into the breakaway contest. Connor (crossbar), Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois were all denied by Jarry. mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg PENGUINS 3 JETS 2 MIKE MCINTYRE ● MORE JETS, NHL ON C3 Mahomes works magic as Chiefs win OT thriller KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes found Travis Kelce in the corner of the end zone from 8 yards early in overtime, and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied to beat the Buffalo Bills 42-36 on Sunday night in a sizzling finish to a wild divisional-round weekend. The lead changed hands three times in the final two minutes of regulation before Harrison Butker, who earlier missed a field goal and extra point, drilled a 49-yarder for Kansas City as time expired to force overtime. The Chiefs won the coin toss, marched swiftly downfield against the NFL’s top- ranked but exhausted defence, and right into their fourth straight AFC title game. They’ll play the Bengals next Sunday night for a spot in the Super Bowl. Mahomes finished with 378 yards passing and three touchdowns, including a 64-yarder to Tyreek Hill during the thrilling final minutes of regulation and the clutch throw to Kelce that sent players streaming off the bench. “The guys didn’t flinch,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “You talk about an epic game, well, that’s the way the players took it. They had tremendous respect for Buffalo and they knew it was going to be a battle and they kept going.” What was Reid’s advice for Mahomes when the Chiefs were up against it? “When it’s grim, be the grim reaper, and go get it,” Reid said. “He made every- one around him better.” Josh Allen was pretty good, too. He threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Ga- briel Davis with 1:54 left in the regulation, then another to Davis — his playoff-re- cord fourth TD catch — with 13 seconds remaining in regulation. Allen’s only mistake? Calling tails on the coin toss for overtime. He finished with 329 yards passing, and Davis with eight catches for 201 yards, as the Bills — who had beaten the Chiefs in October — lost their ninth straight road playoff game dating to their last victory in the 1992 season’s AFC championship. In a playoff game for the history books Sunday night, the Bills and Chiefs played 58 minutes that few will remember. And about two minutes and an overtime that few will forget. The Chiefs were leading 26-21 when Al- len, who had been nearly perfect all night, connected with Davis for the third time in the game — a fourth-and-13 dart that gave the Bills the lead. Not to be outdone, the Chiefs answered when Mahomes found Hill over the middle. The fleet-footed wide receiver ran away from cornerback Levi Wallace for a 64-yard touchdown that gave Kansas City the lead back. Then it was the Bills’ turn. Allen threw a 28-yard pass to Davis, hit him again for 12 yards, then found Emmanuel Sanders to give coach Sean McDermott’s team a chance with 17 seconds on the clock. Allen hit Davis right between the num- bers, their 19-yard strike giving him the postseason-record, but not the victory. Mahomes wasn’t done conjuring up playoff magic. He found Hill for 19 yards, then hit Kelce for 25 more. That gave Butker a chance to try a 49-yarder into a slight, chilly breeze as time expired. Naturally, it split the uprights. Overtime. A fitting way to end a divisional-round weekend filled with last-second heroics. — The Associated Press Mecole Hardman is hoisted in the air by QB Patrick Mahomes after a Chiefs TD. CHIEFS 42 BILLS 36 ● MORE NFL ON C2 C_01_Jan-24-22_FP_01.indd 1 2022-01-23 10:17 PM ;