In Winnipeg, Kyle Connor scored his 14th goal of the season at 11L26 of the middle frame on Saturday to snap a 2-2 tie with the Arizona Coyotes and help the Jets to a 5-+2 win.
Mark Scheifele had a goal and three points in the win.
“You’re just as good as your next game,” Scheifele said. “There is always growth in the game; there is never any complacency, and you just need to continue wanting to work. That’s my thought. I like my game, and I just want to keep growing it.”
Laurent Brossoit made 16 saves in the Winnipeg victory.
“Tonight there were some areas, especially in the first, where we were a little bit sloppy,” Winnipeg associate coach Scott Arniel said. “But you know what? We found a way. In this league, every team is tough to beat, and everybody has their different things that they throw at you. Our group right now is confident and we’re doing a lot of really good things and we’re a hard team to play against.”
The Jets improved to 10-5-2.
Arizona took at a 1-0 lead at 14:53 of the opening stanza on a marker from Matias Maccelli .
The Jets replied with two goals in a 58 second span, with Scheifele hitting at 17:04 for a 1-1 tie, and Vladislav Namestnikov scoring at 18:02 of the first to send the game to the middle frame with the Jets up, 2-1.
“I think it was intentional,” Scheifele said of Namestnikov’s goal. “I don’t think he was trying to pass it, he was trying to maybe even bank it off Vejmelka. But you’ve got to be good to be lucky, and it was a good forecheck and you get rewarded when those things happen.”
The Coyotes tied it, 2-2, when Matt Dumba scored at 6:08 of the second.
Connor then potted the game-winner at 11:26.
“We knew they were going to have a push in the third period,” Connor said. “Josh [Morrissey] scored a big one for us which gave us a little bit more of a cushion.
“I’m just trying to be as lethal as I can, I guess, in the offensive zone, trying to have that attack mindset. … Being a little bit more versatile as well and just trying to score in as many different ways that I can. I think we’re playing well offensively as a unit as well. Our [defensemen] are really getting involved once we hem them in the [offensive] zone, and if you look at our last couple goals, too, off the rush we do a really good job of transitioning.”
Arizona dropped to 8-7-2
The Jets added markers in the third with Josh Morrissey scoring early in the frame for a 4-2 advantage.
Mason Appleton added an empty-net strike at 17:30 for the 5-2 final.
Karel Vejmelka made 21 saves in the loss.
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