WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- It's a football statistic and not one that gets tracked in the NHL, but if the Edmonton Oilers can continue to generate goals off turnovers like they did in defeating the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 in the Heritage Classic Sunday afternoon, their chances of ending a more than decade-long playoff drought look good.

The Oilers beat Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck mere seconds after being handed three giveaways in the second period -- including one by rookie phenom Patrik Laine -- and were never threatened after that. Winnipeg recorded 11 total giveaways in the game.

Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot made 32 saves in posting his 12th career shutout and first this season, but most were of the routine variety. During the few brief moments he was under siege, primarily in the first period, the Jets rattled shots off the glass or shot them into opposing shin pads.

There were 33,240 fans in the stands at Investors Group Field, which is normally the home field for the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

It was Talbot's third NHL outdoor game but just the first one in which he played.

"It's probably a bit easier being on the bench there and take it all in, but I was really excited for this one," he said. "The atmosphere was great out there, the ice was in pretty good condition. It was just one heckuva weekend."

With the win, the Oilers improved to 5-1-0 while the Jets fell to 2-3-0.

Both Talbot and Hellebuyck, who stopped 29 of 32 shots, sported toques on top of their masks during the game to keep warm.

The game was delayed nearly two hours by the most common weather "problem" in the fall in Winnipeg -- too much sun. The NHL felt the glare would create safety issues for the players, despite the fact many of them wore eye black and tinted visors.

The temperature when the puck finally dropped was about 50F or 10C, but it got chillier as the game wore on.

Jets coach Paul Maurice said the three turnovers came at the most inopportune times. The first one, when center Mark Letestu got his stick on Blake Wheeler's pass during a Jets power play and broke in on a clear-cut breakaway, was a momentum-changer.

"They're obvious, and the result was emphatic," he said. "We wouldn't like to think that's part of our game. We're seeing a fair amount of that early on but didn't see it in the first (period) -- I liked our game an awful lot in the first. We had three real good 'A' chances that we didn't convert on.

"We seemed to miss the net an awful lot, but those turnovers on good ice, bad ice, whatever, they're going to be in your net."

While NHL teams are always very happy to be awarded an outdoor game for the excitement and money they can generate, they rarely get the result they're after on the ice. Road teams are now 14-4-1 in the 19 regular season games the NHL has put on.

Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said he's not surprised because he thinks it's easier to be the road team in games such as this.

"I'm convinced of that now in these events," McLellan said. "There are way more distractions. It feels like it's a bit of a circus at times when you're a home team. We were able to just focus.

"We had a good practice yesterday. Our penalty kill was exceptional. This team lit us up in the exhibition season and there were some things we had to fix, and we did that. Goaltending was fine, a good team effort."

Talbot said all his teammates benefitted from being able to spend some time with Oilers greats, including Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, and get some words of advice and encouragement from the players that created the team's proud legacy of five Stanley Cups in the '80s and '90s.

"Getting to have dinner with the alumni the other night and then have some fun at practice yesterday (was great). It's always a lot of fun for the guys coming out here and getting to play in these games so I was just looking forward to taking it all in and then hopefully come out with a big two points, which we were able to get."

Led by arguably the most popular player in Winnipeg's hockey history, Teemu Selanne, the Jets alumni defeated the Oilers alumni, captained by Wayne Gretzky in likely his last formal hockey game, 6-5 on Saturday afternoon.

NOTES: The Heritage Classic was delayed for approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes because NHL officials determined it was too sunny, which could have put the players' safety at risk. ... RW Chris Thorburn and D Mark Stuart were healthy scratches for the Jets. C Bryan Little (lower body injury) remains out indefinitely. ... D Matthew Benning and LW Anton Slepyshev were the Oilers' scratches. ... Edmonton rookie and No. 4 overall pick RW Jesse Puljujarvi played after being a healthy scratch for the previous two games. ... The captains of Saturday's alumni game, Dale Hawerchuk for the Jets and Wayne Gretzky for the Oilers, dropped the puck for the ceremonial face-off. ... Sunday marked the Jets' first regular season outdoor game and the Oilers' second. Edmonton hosted the first NHL Heritage Classic in 2003. It was the 19th regular season outdoor game in NHL history and the first of four this season. Twenty-two teams have played outdoor games.