WINNIPEG \u2014 Brad Lambert will never forget his first NHL goal, not only because it helped the Winnipeg Jets beat the Pittsburgh Penguins but because he had to do post-game interviews wearing somebody else\u2019s shirt and pants.<\/p>\n
When the Jets rookie entered the home locker room after his team\u2019s 5-2 win at Canada Life Centre Saturday afternoon, his own outfit had mysteriously disappeared.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was actually looking for my clothes, I don\u2019t know where they went. I have yet to find out what\u2019s going on. They were over there at my stall when I went to play the game and I came back and they were gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lambert fulfilled his childhood dream at 2:43 of the first period when he was parked to the right of Penguins\u2019 goalie Arturs Silovs and fellow freshman Parker Ford carried the puck behind the net and attempted a wrap around. The puck squirted through the crease for Lambert to convert.<\/p>\n
He said the reality of the situation blew a lifetime of expectations out of the water.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor sure I’ve been dreaming of that moment. When you’re playing road hockey as a kid, you’re kind of envisioning those moments so it’s pretty special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The fact that it was set up by fellow freshman and former linemate with the AHL\u2019s Manitoba Moose, Parker Ford, made the moment even sweeter. The helper was Ford\u2019s first assist of his career.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it’s awesome. You couldn’t write it up any better. I wouldn’t have it any other way. He made a great play on that goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Jets sniper Kyle Connor scored a pair of goals, his seventh and eighth of the season, including one on a short-handed penalty shot. Gabriel Valardi and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for Winnipeg (9-3-0), which outshot the Penguins 34-30. Eric Comrie stopped 28 shots in the Jets\u2019 net.<\/p>\n
Sidney Crosby and Blake Lizotte countered for the Penguins and Silovs made 29 saves in a losing cause for Pittsburgh (8-3-2).<\/p>\n
Connor scored one of the more unusual short-handed goals you\u2019ll ever see. With the Jets short-handed just after the midway point of the second period, he skated in on the forecheck as Silovs went to play the puck in the corner. The Latvian netminder misplayed it and as Connor lunged for the puck just a few feet in front of the net, Silovs threw his stick in that direction.<\/p>\n
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The officials whistled the play down and Connor was awarded a penalty shot. He beat Silovs to the glove side for what was technically a short-handed goal to give the Jets a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Connor said he can\u2019t remember ever having a goalie throw his stick at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really sure what was going on. Kind of missed an open net is what was going through my mind. I actually didn\u2019t know the rule so I didn\u2019t know if they were discussing whether it was a goal. I didn\u2019t really expect a penalty shot. It was nice I got another shot at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Silovs admitted he may not have respected Connor\u2019s forechecking ability as much as he should have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a misplay. He came so fast. I thought he was going to be a little bit slower,\u201d Silovs said.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Toews, who signed with his hometown Jets in the off-season after missing more than two years due to illness, assisted on Namestnikov\u2019s sixth goal of the season just 77 seconds into the second period. He had a rare off-night in the faceoff circle, winning just five of 11 draws but he still leads the league with a 63.6 per cent winning percentage, ahead of Tim St\u00fctzle of the Ottawa Senators in second place with 62.5 per cent.<\/p>\n
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Crosby said he\u2019s happy to see his former Olympic teammate back in the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. I\u2019m happy for him. He\u2019s obviously still got a passion for it. It\u2019s good to see he\u2019s feeling good and back on the ice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n
Geoff Kirbyson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Brad Lambert will never forget his first NHL goal, not only because it helped the Winnipeg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[35594,118782,29207,49,48,118781,18015,454,448,744,118779,116223,20710,82,17589,53681,118780,449],"class_list":["post-255557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-arturs-silovs","tag-blake-lizotte","tag-brad-lambert","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-eric-comrie","tag-jonathan-toews","tag-kyle-connor","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-parker-ford","tag-penguins","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-sports","tag-the-jets","tag-the-penguins","tag-vladislav-namestnikov","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}