In Winnipeg, Kyle Connor hit for a double for the Jets in their 6-3 win over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.
Connor is tied for the league lead in goals this season.
“There are just certain players around the League who you play with or play against who have that goal scoring knack,” Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey said. “Obviously, it’s his skill, it’s his smarts, it’s his shot, it’s all of that. I’ve seen him score so many goals in games and more so in practice even, from impossible angles, from traffic. He does a great job of finding quiet areas in the [offensive] zone. … That real scoring knack is something that you can try to teach, but he just has it naturally. It’s fun to watch.”
The Jets improved to 8-5-2.
“A lot of times this game is about putting it below the hash marks and then going to work, and we’re a pretty good forechecking team,” Winnipeg associate coach Scott Arniel said. “We do a pretty good job of staying above people. And in our contact, when our first guy’s there, the second guy gets there quick and there were some really good rewards from that forecheck and it’s a big part of our game.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves in the win.
The two teams traded two goal outbursts in the second period with Connor hitting for his first of the game at 8:07.
“I mean, when he’s going like he is, that puck just keeps on finding him,” the Jwts’ Nikolaj Ehlers said. “His first goal, he shoots the puck, it comes right back out to him, he’s right there with that speed and is able to put it in. He’s a pretty important and good player for us.”
Cole Perfetti scored off the power play at 13:54 to give the Jets a 2-0 advantage.
New Jersey dropped to 7-6-1 off their third straight loss.
“We knew it was going to be a grind,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “You look at the way we started the third period, we had two or three real good looks. We know Hellebuyck’s a [heck] of a goalie. He made a couple big saves there right off the bat, but we didn’t finish a couple of those opportunities.”
New Jersey rallied in the middle frame to tie it up, 2-2.
Timo Meier scored a minute after the Jets went out to the 2-0 lead, he hit off the power play to trim the deficit to 2-1.
At 16:06, John Marino, scored to get New Jersey even at 2-2.
The Jets bounced back on a goal from Ehlers with less than two minutes left n the middle frame for a 3-2 lad headed to the third.
”When we come back that time of the game with two huge goals with a couple of minutes left in the period, I mean, we get a long shift [but] we kind of shoot ourselves in the foot,” New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt said. “We have to address things. We’ve just got to start with man to man and realize it’s not good enough. It’s far away from the hockey we want to play for 60 minutes. We’ve got to manage time and we’ve got to manage the puck.”
Connor hit for his double midway through the third period to give the Jets some breathing room at 4-2, and Morgan Barron pushed the lead out to 5-2 at 11:58 of the stanza.
Dawson Mercer, helped New Jersey get one back at 14:17 with a power play goal to make it 5-3, but Ehlers hit for his double and the 6-3 final at 18:30 .
Akira Schmid made 25 saves in the loss.
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