WINNIPEG, MB – There were signs all over Bell MTS Place on Sunday night, agreeing with comments made by Jets star Patrik Laine that “Winnipeg is Good.”
Guess the Jets proved it once again.
Kyle Connor scored a pair of goals, Blake Wheeler and Tyler Myers each had three assists, Mathieu Perreault had a goal and two assists and Laine and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as the Jets whipped the visiting Florida Panthers 7-2 at home on Sunday night.
After two tight periods, this one became a no-doubter in the final 20 minutes as the Jets scored four unanswered in the third.
With the score tied at 2-2 late in the second period, Mark Scheifele scored his 18th goal of the season after taking a beautiful pass from Wheeler in the slot and that changed the game.
The Jets came out in the third period, took the play to the Panthers and scored twice before the seven-minute mark to put it away. Connor scored his second of the game and 21st of the season at 3:38 and then Bryan Little scored his 13th of the year at 6:03 after taking a great pass from Perreault.
Perreault kind of put the icing on the cake at 15:27 of the final period when he beat Florida netminder, and Manitoba product, James Reimer with a hard, heavy wrister to tally his 16th of the campaign, but there was even more. Laine put it away with is 27th of the year at 18:25 of the third, just to make it an official rout.
The Panthers were coming off a 6-3 win on Saturday night in Calgary, but the Jets were going to have none of that nonsense.
With the win, the Jets improved to 35-15-9 on the season and grabbed first place in the Central Division. Winnipeg has now won three straight games and is 23-5-2 at home. It was the ninth game of a 10-game homestand and the Jets are now 5-2-2 with a game against Los Angeles coming up on Tuesday night. The Jets have won their last two games by scores of 6-1 and 7-2. They might have had a small blip on the way to the playoffs in early February (back-to-back losses to St. Louis and the Rangers), but right now this team is firing on all cylinders again.
On Sunday night, after a somewhat sluggish start, the Jets were relentless. After Denis Malgin scored his 10th of the year on the power play to give Florida a 1-0 lead, Connor scored his 20th on a power play from Wheeler and Laine and the game was deadlocked at 1-1 through the first 20 minutes.
Nikolaj Ehlers gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 4:39 of the second period, but Alexander Barkov scored his 20th of the year at 7:34 on the power play to tie it up for Florida. However, after Scheifele’s eventual winner, the Jets left the Panthers in their wake.
Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck had a record-setting night. He stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced (both goals he gave up were on the power play) and improved to 31-8-0-8 on the season. With that he tied Kari Lehtonen for the Thrashers/Jets franchise record for most wins in a season with 31. He also made a highlight reel save off a Florida breakaway in the second period.
“The guys played great in front of me tonight,” said Hellebuyck modestly. “(On that play) I had the whole side checked off, there was nobody there, and was playing a little aggressive on the right side hoping he would shoot, but he passed it. Sometimes you just have a little bit of luck.”
The Jets outshot Florida 34-27. Winnipeg scored four goals on only seven shots in the third period. The Jets won 52 per cent of the faceoffs and each team had 17 hits. Little, Laine, Myers, Perreault, Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey were all plus-three for the Jets.
The Jets were one-for-two on the power play while Florida was two-for-four. Connor had Winnipeg’s power play goal while the other six tallies all came at even strength.
The Jets will play the final game of this season-high 10-game homestand on Tuesday night against the Kings. Game time is 7 p.m.
Scott Taylor, Manitoba Post
Photos by James Carey Lauder