2 hours Ago By Paul Friesen
Eric Comrie pumped his arms and found himself on the end of a hug line, fresh off his first NHL shutout in nearly two years. The Winnipeg Jets backup goalie had just stopped 29 shots, backstopping the NHL’s hottest team to a 3-0, home-ice win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. A crowd of 13,802 watched the Jets ride Comrie and hockey’s hottest power play to their seventh straight win, improving to 38-14-3.
It wasn’t the usual suspects providing the fireworks, either, as Nino Niederreiter, Neal Pionk and Rasmus Kupari scored the Winnipeg goals. Comrie’s last shutout came in March, 2023, when he was with Buffalo. “It feels great.
It’s always fun to get a shutout,” Comrie said. “The team was awesome in front of me. This is a fun group of guys to play with.
” Carolina had come into town on a 6-1-1 run in their last eight, but were no match for a Jets team that has found a handful of ways to win this season. Winnipeg went 2-for-4 with the extra man, while killing off both Carolina power plays. Final shots were 30-29 for the Jets.
There were nearly as many goals disallowed as counted in this one, head coach Scott Arniel going 2-for-2 in challenges and improving his record to 6-1 this season. The first period produced some early wild scrambles and chances at both ends, but it took until the 19:18 mark for anybody to get on the board. That’s when Niederreiter took a nifty Alex Iafallo pass and beat Pyotr Kochetkov for his 14th of the season with the Jets on their first power play.
Niederreiter was heavily involved at both ends, robbed by Kochetkov early then throwing his backside in the way of a late Carolina chance. “I just said thank-you and nice block,” Comrie said, also crediting Niederrreiter for helping to keep him sharp between starts by giving him extra work after practices. What looked like an earlier Hurricanes goal was called back when Arniel challenged for goalie interference, and won.
The Jets cashed in on their second power play, too – using their second unit again — Pionk blasting it over the goalie’s shoulder barely three minutes into the middle frame. His team held its 2-0 lead into the third. Vlad Namestnikov appeared to make it a three-goal spread with 6:00 to go, but a review showed he’d kicked it in.
On another scramble some two minutes later, Rasmus Kupari took a shot at upping the lead, jamming a loose puck across the goal line. That one was initially waved off but eventually counted, after a lengthy video review to see if he’d pushed Kochetkov’s pad into the net. The Jets can go into the 4 Nations Face-off break on an eight-game roll if they beat the New York Islanders at home on Friday.
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