The Winnipeg Jets beat the New Jersey Devils 6-3 on Tuesday night in downtown Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg Jets have moved to 8-5-2 with a 6-3 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Kyle Connor scored twice and added an assist, Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice, while Josh Morrissey picked up four helpers as the Jets moved to 4-3-1 at Canada Life Centre on the year.
“When you put up six, and are working with the players we have here, sometimes you get the benefit of getting assists," Morrissey said of his offensive performance. "It was a great win for us, and obviously nice to get rewarded with some assists out there.”
Winnipeg finished the first period outshooting the visitors, albeit by a narrow 9-7 margin, but did little to control the pace of play. It was New Jersey that seemed more in charge, at least in the early stages of the game.
The best chance of the period came off the stick of Cole Perfetti, whose redirection off a Vladislav Namestnikov feed was denied by a swift stop from Akira Schmid, who was making his goaltending debut against the Jets.
Opting to go with 11 forwards and seven defencemen as a way of giving blueliner Logan Stanley a shot at some playing time, the already shorthanded forward corps took another hit early in the first period, as Rasmus Kupari went down with a shoulder injury following an awkward fall into the boards.
“He hurt his shoulder, so we’ll wait and see," interim head coach Scott Arniel said postgame. "He’ll get looked at a little more tomorrow and see where it’s at.”
It was within the middle stanza to which Tuesday’s game broke wide open.
Connor got things going on a strong individual effort, burying his own rebound off a setup play from Josh Morrissey.
The teams then went on to combine for four goals in a span of just 4:44 in the later stages of the frame.
First, it was the Jets and Devils exchanging power play markers, with Cole Perfetti and Timo Meier striking on back-to-back man advantages.
Then, it was John Marino, who tied things up with just 4:54 to play in the frame. But Nikolaj Ehlers had other plans, as he finished off a slick Perfetti cross-ice feed, pulling the Jets ahead 3-2 through 40 minutes of play.
"Well, we’ve done that twice this year now," Ehlers said of the Perfetti setup. "Cole is a really smart player. He’s got great hockey sense and reads the game really well. He told me just before he saw me he was going to rip the puck, so it worked out great. Our line played pretty well tonight. We won some battles in the O-zone, which is something we’ve been trying to get better at.”
The action-packed second period saw 22 total shots and five goals between the two clubs.
Winnipeg finished things off with a strong third period showing, as the team scored three more times, fresh off the heels of a Nikolaj Ehlers fight.
“It's funny because I literally... My mom and sister are in town right now and earlier today I told them that my fighting days are probably over with all the injuries I’ve had, so yeah that lasted about five hours," Ehlers laughed.
Following a dirty hit on Vladislav Namestnikov, Ehlers stood up for his fallen mate and fought veteran tough guy Brendan Smith just moments before the Jets got back on the board.
“This guy is a warrior; he’s a tough guy," Morrissey said of Ehlers. "I don’t know if he’s fought anyone in his weight class, to be honest with you. So there is always a little bit of ‘don’t do it’, and then he always does way better than he should, potentially. Maybe now we should drop that label as it now is his weight class."
With Curtis Lazar in the box for hooking, Connor hammered his second of the game past Schmid, capitalizing on a perfect Mark Scheifele pass. With the goal, he moved into a tie with Toronto's Auston Matthews for first in goal scoring league-wide.
The goal was Connor's third point of the night, while Josh Morrissey picked up his third assist of the game in the process.
"That real scoring knack is something that you can try to teach, but he just has it naturally," Morrissey said of Connor. "It’s fun to watch.”
Morgan Barron added another midway through the frame, scoring off a strong Namestnikov attack in the Devils' defensive zone.
But with Morrissey in the box for cross checking, Dawson Mercer got the Devils back to within two, scoring his third of the season with 5:43 left in the game.
Ehlers sealed it with an empty-netter, finishing off the Devils with his second of the game.
Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 31 of New Jersey's 34 shots for the win.
Next up for Winnipeg is a back-to-back Friday/Saturday set of games, as the Buffalo Sabres and the Arizona Coyotes make their respective ways to Canada Life Centre to close out Winnipeg's season-high, five-game homestand.
