In Winnipeg, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Jack Campbell made 25 saves in a 4-1 win over the Jets on Saturday.
The Leafs took both games of the set with the Jets and lead by eight points.
“I really thought we got better even from the other night,” Toronto’s John Tavares said. “As a group, it was hard-fought and the things we looked to do to get better, I thought we did a good job. We stayed composed and patient and just competed. Trusted our game and obviously tried to take control. Not a great start, but I thought we controlled a lot of the game, which is really good by our group.”
Nikolaj Ehlers was the lone goal scorer for the Jets.
“We’ve been a pretty resilient group,” Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler said. “We’ve bounced back from adversity all year. … We want to be a physical, forechecking team. Play north-south. It’s always part of our game plan, so I don’t think it was any different tonight.”
After the Jets took a 1-0 lead, Joe Thornton and Mitchell Marner scored to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead in the first period.
“[Thornton] kind of brought that fire tonight,” Campbell said. “He wants to win so bad, and when you see a guy like Joe [giving an effort] like that, it just makes you want to do your job even more.”
Tavares made it 3-1 in the middle frame.
Alexander Kerfoot popped in an empty-net goal to ice the win.
Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves in the loss.
“That’s their playoff game,” Hellebuyck said. “Now we know what we’re going to see in the playoffs if we run into them. We didn’t have very good luck; off the stanchion, that’s not great. Third one, I lost an edge. That’s pretty routine movement for me, and I was right on it. Two game-changing goals, but it is what it is.”
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