The Winnipeg Jets faced off against the Columbus Blue Jackets from Canada Life Centre on Tuesday night.
The 27-9-4 Winnipeg Jets have won their seventh-straight game, retaining their first-place status across the league.
And they did so with authority.
Cole Perfetti scored twice, while Brenden Dillon, Josh Morrissey and Gabe Vilardi each found the twine for Winnipeg, which extended its points streak to 13 games with a 5-0 shutout victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
“It felt good, it felt really good," Perfetti said postgame. "It’s always fun to score and it felt good to score twice tonight. It feels good.”
The team also lengthened its stretch of games allowing just three or fewer goals to an astonishing 30-straight outings.
But the biggest news piece following the mid-week affair was that of the health of star forward Mark Scheifele, who left the game in the third period after taking a deflected shot to what appeared to be his ear.
To the relief of many across Manitoba, Scheifele popped out of the Jets' tunnel and celebrated with his teammates on-ice following the final buzzer.
Returning home following a successful three-game mentors trip, the Jets hosted the Patrik Laine-less Blue Jackets, coached by former assistant Pascal Vincent.
The contest marked the first test of a four-game homestand that also features games against the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders over the next week.
Dillon opened the scoring on a fluky goal just 3:12 into the first period, as he banked the puck off a Blue Jackets defenceman and past goaltender Daniil Tarasov to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. His sixth of the season matched a career-high set 10 years ago with Dallas.
“Maybe she won’t remember quite as pretty as I can paint it for her," Dillon joked of how he'll someday describe his goal to his young daughter. "I came in, I sniped it short-side with a beautiful shot. It was one of the harder shots of my career.”
Cole Perfetti doubled the Jets' lead on a strong sneak play from defenceman Dylan Samberg at the midway point of the second period. Taking a pass from Nate Schmidt, the young blueliner pulled behind the Columbus net and slipped a pass out front to Perfetti, who made no mistake tapping it home.
“The roommate connection, I guess," Perfetti laughed. "No, he’s been playing great. He’s been moving the puck really well and seeing the ice really well. That’s a great play to activate from down the wall. I was holding my ground and just hoping. We made eye contact, so I had a feeling he was going to try and make the play. He fed it through a little hole there and it was a great pass. That was awesome.”
Perfetti's 13th made it 2-0, and before the frame came to an end, Morrissey added another.
Blasting home his seventh of the year with authority, Morrissey seemingly put the game out of reach for the visitors, who were truly unable to get anything going in the middle frame.
Up 3-0 heading into the third, all the Jets needed was 20 minutes of solid, shutdown hockey to preserve the win. That was anything but what happened.
The team pumped two more past Tarasov, as Perfetti got his second of the game, before Vilardi scored a power play marker, but the biggest concern was the injury suffered by Schefiele.
Standing netfront next to Vilardi, a Morrissey slap shot deflected off Emil Bemstrom and rose directly into the side of Scheifele's head. After writhing in pain on the ice, he pulled himself to his feet and was guided to the bench and down the tunnel for a closer examination.
“I think I had both hands on my head in shock," Perfetti said. "You obviously don’t know what it is right away. You just see the puck hit him in the head. My stomach kind of dropped. Obviously, an amazing player but a great guy. You hate to see that happen."
The initial prognosis did not look good at all, and eerily resembled the play that ended the career of former Jets forward Bryan Little - who took a deflected Nikolaj Ehlers slap shot to the ear in nearly the exact same spot of the ice at Canada Life Centre.
But luckily, he was in good spirits postgame and even appeared ready to begin further exercise.
"I don't have an exact, I know he had some stitches on his ear and yeah," Rick Bowness said. "So I just went to look for him there and I couldn't find him so I don't have an exact update but he came back on the bench and he was in the locker room with us after the game."
Without Scheifele, Winnipeg held on, shutting down the Jackets' attack, as Hellebuyck slammed the door on everything else thrown his way, earning his 34th career shutout, and second of the season.
He ultimately made all 30 stops on pucks fired his way by Columbus, while Tarasove turned aside just 18 pucks for the Blue Jackets.
Next up for Winnipeg is the continuation of the four-game homestand, with division rival Chicago coming to town on Thursday. That game can be viewed live on TSN at 7:00 PM central.
