Nikolaj Ehlers Postgame On Saturday night, the seventh-place Winnipeg Jets travelled to British Columbia for a tilt with the first-place Vancouver Canucks. Gabe Vilardi scored twice, Mark Scheifele had a goal and three assists, while Sean Monahan found his first goal as a member of the Jets in Winnipeg's 4-2 victory over the No. 1 seed Canucks. The two Canadian Western Conference rivals combined for 20 shots in the first period, but neither club could buy a goal. In a game dubbed to be a goaltending matchup, the two duel between 30-win Thatcher Demko and 26-win Hellebuyck saw blank sheets from the two backstops in the opening 20 minutes. But that would all change just moments after the puck was dropped in the middle stanza. The Canucks found the first of the game on a fluky bounce just 19 seconds in. Conor Garland carried the puck into the Jets' zone, before banking it off Adam Lowry's skate on an attempted centring pass. Noah Juulsen swooped in and put the disc past Hellebuyck for his first goal since 2018. Winnipeg got one back just five minutes later, with Vilardi scoring Winnipeg's first power play marker in nine games. Having gone eight games without a goal on a man advantage, Vilardi backhanded home his 12th of the season, knotting things up at ones. Then it was Monahan who gave the Jets their first lead of the game, putting the finishing touches on a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play on another power play. Having scored just once in their last 33 opportunities, the Jets's 28th-ranked road power play found two goals on man advantages Saturday. The second goal was a result of a heavy check by Adam Lowry, leading to a fight, misconduct and instigating minor to Phillip Di Giuseppe. But before the period could come to a close, former Jets defenceman Tyler Myers capitalized on a Winnipeg giveaway, scoring the second Canucks goal of the game on a nifty backhand play. The Jets started the third period down a man, as Morgan Barron left with an illness after 40 minutes. But it didn't seem to matter, as Winnipeg potted two goals in a span of just 1:55, pulling ahead by two in the early stages of the frame. First, it was Vilardi, who found his second of the game, off a sacrificial play from Scheifele. The team's top-line centreman took a heavy hit in order to dish the puck to Kyle Connor. The speedy winger found Vilardi at the doorstep for his 13th of the season, a tap-in. Then, less than two minutes later, the top line struck again. Scheifele picked up his fourth point of the game, but just his first goal, as he finished off another goal off the rush, with Connor earning his second primary assist of the contest. Having gone eight-straight games with just two or fewer goals scored, Winnipeg managed to double that stingy statistic, putting up two goals in both the second and third periods alone. The newly-assembled Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi line combined for nine points in the game. Hellebuyck turned aside 35 of the Canucks' 37 shots on net, while Demko made 24 stops on the 28 pucks he faced. The home loss was Demko's first in 11 games, and dropped his home record to 18-4-0 on the season. Next up for Winnipeg is a Monday afternoon test with another western Canadian rival, as the Jets make their way to Calgary for a test against the Flames at 3:00 PM central time. That game can be viewed live on TSN.
