Jets Earn 11th-Straight Win Over Injury Riddled Senators

The Winnipeg Jets have improved to a league-best 42-14-3 record with a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. 

Travelling to the nation's capital for the first test of a Wednesday/Thursday back-to-back, Winnipeg received goals from Cole Perfetti, Mason Appleton, Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, while Connor Hellebuyck made 24 stops on the night. 

Down captain Brady Tkachuk and fellow forwards Josh Norris and Shane Pinto, the Senators showed up to play down a number of key contributors. Winnipeg, on the other hand, entered the game missing just Morgan Barron. 

A testy opening period saw fights involving both Logan Stanley and Adam Lowry, as the two tough customers stood up for fallen teammates. 

The fisticuffs appeared to spark Winnipeg, which had quickly fallen behind in the shot chart to the tune of a 7-4 disadvantage early. The Jets put up two goals in short order, seeing tallies from Cole Perfetti and Mason Appleton.

Perfetti's 12th of the season came off a defensive zone turnover from Tim Stutzle, to which Perfetti redirected Nikolaj Ehlers' quick shot on net. The puck changed it course and fooled Linus Ullmark, making it 1-0 for Winnipeg just 7:46 in. 

Then just over a minute later, Appleton jammed home a rebound off a chance from linemate Nino Niederreiter on a two-on-one rush up ice.

Concluding the period up 2-0, Winnipeg looked to improve upon its NHL-best 24-3-2 record when leading after 20 minutes. 

After denying Dylan DeMelo on what looked like a sure goal, Ullmark allowed Kyle Connor's 31st of the season 8:05 into the second. Some hard work from Gabe Vilardi in front allowed Connor a clear lane through to the goal.

But less than a minute after the 3-0 strike, Ottawa responded with a goal of its own. Stutzle made amends for his earlier blunder and found Thomas Chabot, who ripped a wrist shot past a bewildered Connor Hellebuyck, cutting the Jets' lead to two goals. 

Given a full two minutes of five-on-three power play time, the Jets were unable to get anything for their efforts, falling to 0/10 in their last four games on the man advantage. Not for a lack of trying nonetheless, Ottawa's penalty killers were just fully up to the task, helping keep the game 3-1 through 40 minutes. 

Winnipeg entered the third up 31-23 on the shot chart and wore the clock down to the 3:35 mark to which Ottawa opted to pull Ullmark early for the extra attacker.

Scheifele put his 33rd of the season into the empty net, sealing the deal for Winnipeg on its 11th-straight victory.

Hellebuyck picked up his 36th win of the season by turning aside 24 of the 25 shots fired his way. Ullmark made just 36 stops on the Jets' 39 shots. 

The Jets will now fly out of Ottawa straight to Tennessee in advance of Thursday's 7:00 PM central test with the Nashville Predators in the second test of the back-to-back.