Jets edge Oilers, 4-3, to snap skid Jets lose Mark Scheifele to injury

The Winnipeg Jets defeated the visiting Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night, 4-3, but lost star Mark Scheifele to an upper body injury in the middle frame.

Teams are typically evasive of player status after an injury but that was not the case after the game.

“We’ll get a real good look at it for tomorrow. Initially, I would say it doesn’t look very good,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “… I should have a pretty good handle on it by [tomorrow].”

For the game,  Joel Armia struck twice for the Jets to lead the offense.

Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves to help the Jets stop a three-game skid.

He made two saves late to preserve the win.

“That’s why I love the game,” Hellebuyck said. “It’s exciting. Our guys played so well in front of me. They were blocking everything. I know I’m not going to be able to see a whole lot, but I know the guys in front of me are going to be working. I’ve just got to work to see the ones that are my job, and when it does hit me, I’ve got to hold it.”

Leon Draisaitl, Jesse Puljujarvi and Jujhar Khaira scored for Edmonton who dropped to 17-18-2 with the loss.

“I thought that the work ethic and the commitment to wanting to work hard was there tonight, but our smarts, our hockey smarts, didn’t exist,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Oilers.

“I thought just the sharpness in our game wasn’t there. It led to a lot of their opportunities, which I thought we kind of fed into it. Good news is we get these guys in a couple days to show what we really have,” the Oilers’ Mark Letestu

Bryan Little and Kyle Connor also scored for the Jets who improved to 21-11-6.

Despite the win, most thoughts were on Scheifele.

“That’s my running mate, man. That’s part of my livelihood, a big part of what we do as a team. Irreplaceable. Just fingers crossed,” the Jets’ Blake Wheeler said after the win.

[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Jets highlights]

Cam Talbot made 35 saves in the loss.

“A lot of times, we were stepping up in the neutral zone, we had poor support in behind. Face-off execution, number of turnovers — stuff that we need to do a much better job of against a team like that,” McLellan said after the loss.

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