Maple Leafs handle Jets

In Winnipeg, Jack Campbell made 26 saves  in a 3-1 win for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Jets, on  Wednesday night.

Auston Matthews had a goal in the win, it was his third straight game with a strike.  His goal gave the Lea

“Tonight was big one for us against a team that’s right up there with us in the standings,” Matthews said. “For us these two games [against Winnipeg] are extremely important.”

Josh Morrissey was the lone goal scorer for the Jets.

“Unfortunately we had some penalties, which kind of takes the flow out of the game in a game where you’re trying to get your legs under you early,” Morrissey said. “We really weren’t able to. I really liked our game after that. In the second period we had a lot of great chances, we were all over them. They played a pretty solid game after that, didn’t give us a lot. I guess you could say they scored a few in the first and we only scored one in the game, so we lost the first period and we ended up losing the game.”

Zach Hyman scored for Toronto midway through the opening period for a 2-0 lead.

Alexander Kerfoot made it 3-0 at 16:40 of the second period off a shorthanded breakaway.

“The start was huge, going up 2-0 early, it’s a lot easier to play when you got the lead than when you’re coming from behind,” Kerfoot said. “So that was big. I just though that we played a bit more of a complete game and [Campbell] did a great job back there shutting the door.”

Morrissey cracked through for the Jets with a power-play strike in the second, just after Kerfoot scored.

“A huge goal (Kerfoot) for us. A big moment in the game,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Obviously we don’t like giving the one back right after that … [the Jets] get the one you kind of expected they might within the number of minutes we gave them on the power play. It’s not of big a deal because we get that shorty.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves in the loss.

“It was tough. He’s a rock for us,” the Jets’ Mark Scheifele said. “He does so much. He’s our heart and soul. So to see him not come back is tough. We played hard. We had a lot of guys step into more minutes and were grinding in there. It’s always good to see when guys pick up when another guy goes down.”