In Winnipeg, following a scoreless first period, Josh Morrissey put the Jets ahead, 1-0, on Saturday night.
Blake Wheeler added a pair of goals and Winnipeg defeated the visiting Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1.
“Our game is predicated on being able to transition the puck fast and try to get our forwards moving,” Wheeler said. “Obviously, our team moves well, and when we’re moving like that it can create some time and space, and that is where we can make some plays.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves in the Winnipeg win.
“Certainly better than the end of that stretch in January (1-3-0), a tough couple months schedule-wise,” Wheeler said. “The last two days of practice we had a lot of life, so you could sense we would come out with some good jump tonight.”
The Jets moved to 33-19-1.
“They might have got a little bit of momentum [off their goal] but I don’t think we took the foot off the gas at all,” Hellebuyck said. “I mean, we did just have a long break and we’re getting our legs under us. But I thought it was a good 60 [minutes]. They’ve got some good scorers over there. You’ve got to imagine they’re going to push back at some point, so that was their push.”
Wheeler scored his first off the power play in the middle frame, and Mark Scheifele f added a single marker to send the game to the third period with the Jets up, 3-0.
“It was big,” Wheeler said. “Obviously, the 5-on-3 for an extended period of time, I thought we did a really good job on that. I mean, we had some really Grade-A looks, their goalie made a couple of really, really good saves. We could have had a couple there, and it was nice to keep some pucks in and win some battles, and those little things tend to pay off when you’re able to hem in the PK for an extended period of time.”
Tyler Johnson was the lone striker for the Blackhawks, he scored early in the third to trim the Jets lead to 3-1.
“[Winnipeg] is a tough team,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “They’re a very talented team offensively. The couple mistakes we made in the second period, they really capitalized on. … I thought we had some good looks at the end, even 6-on-5, but Hellebuyck’s a good goaltender and they play a real strong structure so we just couldn’t get that next one in.”
The Hawks dropped to 16-30-5.
“I thought they were taking it to us,” Johnson said. “I think we didn’t do a good job of getting pucks in and forechecking. Winnipeg did a great job of breaking it out and they’re really good in the neutral zone, so they were better than us.”
Wheeler scored into an empty net with 25 seconds left on the clock for the 4-1 final.
Petr Mrazek made 24 saves in the Chicago loss.
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