Blackhawks’ rally falls short in loss to Winnipeg

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In Winnipeg, Thursday night, the Jets held a 6-3 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks late in the third period before Artem Anisimov and Dominik Kahun scored to make to make it 6-5 with just under three minutes left in regulation.

But the Jets held off the Hawks and blunted the rally to take the win.

The Jets benefited from a hat trick from Nikolaj Ehlers and two goals from Patrik Laine in the win.

Nikolaj Ehlers had a hat trick in win over Chicago Thursday in Winnipeg – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“You hope for it, you work for it,” Ehlers said. “I feel like I’ve been playing some good hockey lately. It’s got better and better. My defensive game was not good today but I worked as hard as I can to continue growing as a player. And today I got rewarded.”

Laine has 18 goals in the month of November.

“I knew it was going to come eventually,” Laine said. “When you work hard you’re going to get it at some point. Good to get it out of the way and try to chase 200 now. It was a good win.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves to get the win despite the late rally from the Blackhawks.

Winnipeg improved to 14-8-2.

John Hayden, Marcus Kruger and Jan Rutta also scored for Chicago.

“We need to get out of our own way,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. “When we get out of our own way we will be all right. Until then we are going to struggle.”

Chicago dropped to 9-12-5.

“Can’t explain it all,” Duncan Keith said. “The team [has] come out ready. We have to just be better. There’s nothing more to be said than that. Be better. Just be better.”

[WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Jets highlights]

Corey Crawford made 27 saves in taking the loss.

“I think we have to start competing. That’s where it all starts. We have to come up with those 50-50 battles,” Kruger said after the game. “When we don’t do that we get in trouble in our own end and they get chance after chance. We got to find a way to bear down on those and then we’re going to get some confidence in our game because we’re winning battles and you get better offense from that.”