In Denver, Kyle Connor struck for a hat trick on Tuesday and the visiting Winnipeg Jets beat the Colorado Avalanche, 7-4.
“It is the way hockey goes,” Connor said. “You are going to get a couple of good bounces.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 39 saves in the win.
Blake Wheeler had two goals for the Jets.
“He’s (Connor) dialed in,” Wheeler said. “I mean, the kid’s got world-class hands on him and he just works extremely hard. Since his recall a couple of years ago, he’s just really invested in working every single night.”
Nathan MacKinnon scored twice for the Avs.
“We’re not getting those easy goals,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re working hard for what we get and we’re giving up easy goals.”
Gabriel Landeskog scored for the Avs and Nazem Kadri pulled Colorado to within 5-4 late in the third.
“We’re finding different ways to lose every night lately and it’s frustrating, so we got to figure our way out of it now,” the Avs’ Erik Johnson said.
Michael Scheifele also scored for the Jets.
Blake Wheeler and Nikolaj Ehlers netted empty-net goals around Kadri’s late strike.
“I’ve got to control my stick a little better, but I was just trying to make a play and I ended up with four minutes,” Connor said. “Especially watching them score, it’s tough to sit there and watch that. But we battled back, and everybody top to bottom, we got efforts from everybody, so it was a good one.”
[WATCH:Â All Jets vs. Avalanche highlights]
Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves in the loss.
“We keep shooting (ourselves) in our own leg,” Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen said. “We do mistakes on our own, you know? It’s costing us right now, so we just have to figure it out. It’s a tough division, tough conference, and we can’t keep dropping these points.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.