Barron gives Jets huge lift by returning from scary injury in win

LAS VEGAS -- "Look at that battle scar."

Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele couldn’t help but send some love Morgan Barron’s way from a distance as he talked in the locker-room, which was his way of showing appreciation for one of those stories that could end up in hockey lore, being told for years to come.

There was Barron, surrounded by a throng of reporters, blood trickling slowly around a stitched-up right eye, the result of a scary situation that required more than 75 stitches to sew up.

Jets centre Adam Lowry expressed his gratitude for his linemate coming back into the game after Barron was cut by the skate blade of Vegas Golden Knights goalie Laurent Brossoit during a mad scramble late in the first period on Tuesday.

“It looked like he got attacked by a shark, to be honest,” said Lowry, who scored twice as the Jets earned a tidy 5-1 victory over the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in the playoff opener for both teams.

“It’s a scary thing. We’re all so worried about the puck crossing the line and then all of a sudden we see a trail of blood basically from the crease all the way to the bench. You don’t know what happened. You assume a stick, but seeing the replay and hearing about it in the intermission, and hearing the number of stitches he was getting. I thought they said 15, not 50-plus. 

“To sit on the table, get stitched up and miss basically an hour of action and come back, speaks volumes to his heart. It’s tough to come back when you’ve sat that long.”

Barron didn’t up end on the scoresheet but played a prominent role on the Jets penalty kill, which finished the game 3-for-3 -- and also served as an inspiration to his teammates for his willingness to sacrifice his body.

“I don’t think anyone doubted he was coming back,” said Jets forward Blake Wheeler, who paced the offensive attack with an insurance marker and two assists. “He didn’t look very pretty but he’s a college hockey player and he’s used to playing with a cage on so it was good, first and foremost, to see that he wasn’t hurt too badly. Once we knew that, it was good to see him back on the ice, for sure.”

There was never a doubt in Barron’s mind he would return to the game, not with him suiting up in his first Stanley Cup Playoff game and knowing what was at stake.

“It’s actually not bad. They did a great job stitching me up and, obviously, it missed my eye. I was glad it didn’t get me in a real bad spot, but they did a great job fixing me up,” said Barron, who was then asked what was going through his mind leading up to the blade catching him just above the right eye.

“I was trying to figure out if the puck went in. It was sitting pretty close and, obviously, I saw the skate coming and it was just an unlucky play, a little bit unfortunate. The first thought was, ‘I could see out of the eye, so that was the main thing.’”

Barron didn’t shy away from any physical contact either, playing the hard-nosed style that has made him so effective of late.

“No. No. With the cage on, it’s pretty hard for anything to happen. You get hopped up on adrenaline,” said Barron, who finished with five hits. “I was obviously really excited for my first playoff game and just kind of went from there.” 

Game 2 is set for Thursday night before the series shifts to Winnipeg for Game 3 on Saturday afternoon.

After a scoreless opening period where the Jets did a nice job of limiting the offence generated by the Golden Knights (outside of a few turnovers related to poor puck management), they scored twice on two shots on goal early in the second period to help plant the seed of doubt.

Playing without dynamic winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, the Jets delivered a pair of goals 62 seconds apart to get rolling.

There was Pierre-Luc Dubois turning back the clock to the 2020 bubble playoffs, setting up Kyle Connor for the ice breaker and then coming off the bench quickly and ripping a high wrister past Brossoit.

Dubois was a force throughout, setting up Connor for the ice-breaker, finishing with three shots on goal and eight hits.

“When you get out there that fast after a goal, the next couple shifts, you just want to keep the momentum on your side,” said Dubois. “I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Jets' offence went through some ice-cold stretches during the stretch run, but they remedied that during the stretch run and exploded for five goals on Tuesday night.

“We had a tough time five-on-five scoring goals for a long time and some of it was puck luck, some of it was circumstances. I think it was great to go through that as a team to find different ways to win,” said Wheeler. “When we're not scoring a bunch of goals, when our top players aren't necessarily filling up the score sheet every night. That's a mark of a good team, if you find different ways to win. So, it just adds another wrinkle to our team if we're able to win. Nobody really cares. At the end of the day. It's all about winning games.”

With Ehlers out, the Jets knew they’d need to get contributions throughout the lineup and that’s exactly what happened, as three of the four lines found the back of the net, including a late power-play goal from Lowry that rounded out the scoring.

“I think that’s playoff hockey. We’re playing tough hockey,” said Connor. “It takes everything, every ounce of energy you’ve got every shift. There are going to be injuries, there are going to be guys that need to step up into a role that maybe they’re not comfortable with, but that’s absolutely the identity of our team. We come in waves, no matter who it is out there.”

For good reason, the goaltending battle received plenty of attention going into the series, as many folks were wondering how Brossoit would respond to the pressure of making his first playoff start.

It wasn’t a high-volume evening for Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck, but he needed to be sharp early when a couple of costly turnovers led to qualify scoring opportunities, including one for Oakbank, Man., product Brett Howden.

William Karlsson was the only player to beat Hellebuyck, and it took a nifty pass from Ivan Barbashev and a perfect shot over the glove and under the crossbar to turn the red light on.

As for Brossoit, Hellebuyck’s former understudy gave up five goals on 31 shots, suffering his first regulation loss in 11 starts with the Golden Knights this season.

Moments after the final buzzer, the Jets were already turning their attention to be better in Game 2, knowing full well that the Golden Knights would find another level of urgency, not wanting to fall behind 2-0 in this series.

“Well, we’ve already talked to them about that. We know Thursday night is going to be a lot tougher game,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. “And Game 3 will be tougher, Game 4 will be tougher. That’s what happens in the playoffs.”