Jets use Kyle Connor injury as motivation, battle back for gutsy win in Anaheim
Gabriel Vilardi scored his first goal as a Jet, as Winnipeg battled back from 2-0 to win 4-2 against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.
Winnipeg used an early injury to forward Kyle Connor injury as motivation, and battled back with a gutsy come-from-behind winning performance at the Honda Center to move into first place in the Central Division.
"It is a gutsy effort to keep grinding like that," Vilardi said postgame. "It was an ugly game. That’s the honest truth, but we won.”
Despite picking up the win in the California road trip opener to the Anaheim Ducks, Winnipeg lost top forward Kyle Connor to a knee injury in the opening seconds of the middle period.
Connor got drilled on a dirty knee-on-knee check from Ryan Strome, knocking Connor out of the game, and sending the offender to the showers early.
“It’s a knee-on-knee; he sticks his knee out," Jets head coach Rick Bowness said.
"You hope that’s suspendable. Knee-on-knee. Listen, there’s no other way of looking at it. You hope it’s suspendible. But the referees made the right call. Five-minute major and a game misconduct and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The Jets' top scorer wasn't able to get up and needed assistance to the room. The team ruled him out of the game with a lower-body injury shortly thereafter.
“I do feel for him. Like, it was his knee, obviously," Vilardi said. "It’s tough. It’s never easy coming back from injury. People that don’t play, don’t really realize it. You miss time and the guys are going. They’re in the flow of the season and you’re just kind of coming in. It’s like you’re back in training camp. It sucks to see him go down.
"He got the five-minute penalty, but hopefully it’s nothing too serious. I haven’t seen or heard anything yet.”
Unable to score on the ensuing five-minute major, Winnipeg later gave up the go-ahead goal with 3:53 remaining in the frame.
With Neal Pionk in the box for holding the stick, Alex Killorn whacked home a rebound past Connor Hellebuyck, giving the home team a late-period, power play marker to take the 1-0 lead through 40 minutes.
The Jets started the third rather quickly. Alex Iafallo - who moved up into Connor's top line spot - hit the post squarely just 35 seconds into the frame, before the Ducks took the puck the other way and Adam Henrique potted a quick one past Hellebuyck.
But Winnipeg didn't give up there, as the team rallied for back-to-back strikes shortly after the Ducks thought they had it in the bag.
43 seconds after the time of the 2-0 goal, Nino Niederreiter found his seventh of the season, banging home a quick one-timer from the slot, on a play that saw forward Vladislav Namestnikov do all the hard work.
Returning on Sunday from injury, Namestnikov collected the puck in the neutral zone and carried it all the way to the corner, before centring it right to Niederreiter. The later banked home the quick shot through John Gibson's legs, cutting Anaheim's lead in half with 18:02 left on the clock.
Then it was Morgan Barron, who knotted things up at twos, as he went hard to the net and jammed home a loose puck off a Josh Morrissey point shot. His fifth of the season came just 5:55 into the frame, allowing a good 14 more minutes of play for his mates to find a winner.
Barron almost did it again in the second half of the period, but his shot deflected off two Ducks before striking the second post of the period for Winnipeg.
It all didn't matter, as first-year Jet Vilardi potted his first of the season with 1:42 remaining, perfectly redirecting a Morrissey point shot past Gibson.
Scheifele scored his ninth of the year into the empty net, sealing the deal on a testy come-from-behind 4-2 victory.
With the win, Winnipeg moved into sole possession of first place in the Central Division, but the biggest concern is the health of Connor, moving forward.
“It means we’re a good team," Vilardi said when asked what it means to be first in the Central. "But we’ve got to keep going though.”
Hellebuyck made 25 stops on Anaheim's 27 shots, while Gibson turned aside 27 of the 30 pucks fired his way.
Next up for Winnipeg is the second game of the California swing and third of the road trip overall, as the Jets hit the ice in San Jose on Tuesday for the first game of a back-to-back with the Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. Both games can be viewed live on TSN and feature late 9:30 PM central start times.