Golden Knights dump Jets 5-3 in front of another sparse Winnipeg crowd
More than 3,800 seats were empty for visit by Stanley Cup champs
For a second-consecutive game, the Winnipeg Jets struggled to fill the net and the seats in their home arena.
Jack Eichel broke a tie on a power play with 4:36 left and the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights beat the Jets 5-3 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory to open the season.
Attendance at Canada Life Centre was 11,521, only a slight improvement from the crowd of 11,226 at Tuesday's game against the Los Angeles Kings.
The arena's capacity is 15,324 and Tuesday's crowd size is believed to be the lowest — outside of game restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic — since the Jets moved from Atlanta in 2011.
Tuesday's game was the first visit by Pierre-Luc Dubois since he was traded by the Jets in June, while Thursday's game saw Jets' goalie Laurent Brossoit starting against Vegas — a team he won the championship with last season.
But those story lines weren't enough to draw the crowds. Even the Jets' home opener on Saturday against the Florida Panthers and former head coach Paul Maurice fell 2,000 short of a sellout.
The Jets are now 1-3 after the first four games of the season and sit in last place in the Central Division. They've been outscored 19-13 in that time, allowing five goals against three times.
The Golden Knights, meanwhile, are the first reigning champion to open a season with five straight wins since the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers.
"Good teams find a way to win and we found a way to win," Eichel said. "Obviously, we'll take the two points tonight."
After Eichel gave Vegas a 4-3 lead, Nicolas Roy capped the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:03 remaining.
Jonathan Marchessault, Brett Howden and Alec Martinez also scored for the Golden Knights. Logan Thompson stopped 36 shots.
"We know we're not going to play our best every night, but a ton of credit goes to our goalie," Eichel said. "And we found a way to score some goals down the stretch."
Alex Iafallo scored twice for Winnipeg and Cole Perfetti added a goal. Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves.
"It's frustrating to lose, obviously," Iafallo said. "You want to win every game but we are just going to stay positive.
"I feel like we are doing a lot of good things. We need to clean up some mistakes but, at the same time, we are just going to keep close moving, climbing that mountain."
The games was a rematch of Vegas' 4-1 series victory last season in the first round of the playoffs.
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With files from The Canadian Press