Jets defeat Kraken, continue push in West wild-card race

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets built a lead on the back of three power-play goals and kept pace in the Western Conference wild-card race with a 6-2 win against the Seattle Kraken at Canada Life Centre on Monday.

“Obviously, the three goals, getting that first one was big,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “We went with more of a shot mentality, attacking the net a little bit more and a little bit quicker. I thought we did a great job of that.”

Kyle Connor scored two goals, and Mark Scheifele surpassed 900 career points with three assists for the Jets (34-31-12), who have won four of five games. Jonathan Toews and Gabriel Vilardi each had a goal and an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves and Josh Morrissey had two assists.

“The thing about (Connor) and goal-scorers is that they know how to find open ice,” Arniel said. “They know how to find space to get shots off, to have their stick available. (Connor) knows if he gets himself available, (Scheifele’s) going to find him. When (Scheifele) has it, his first look is, ‘Where’s 81? Where is he?’ They play real close together.”

Winnipeg is three points behind the Los Angeles Kings, which defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 in a shootout on Monday, for the second wild card.

Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann scored for the Kraken (32-33-11), who have lost five straight and nine of 10 (1-7-2). Philipp Grubauer allowed three goals on 18 shots before being replaced at 13:20 of the second period by Joey Daccord, who made 10 saves in relief.

Seattle is eight points out of the second wild card with six games left to play.

“We have to find a way to dig in,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “Right now, we have an ownership that gives us everything that we need, we have a fan base that is behind us all the way through, good and bad, and we have to find a way to be professionals here and show up and play to the best of our abilities. No excuses, and that's about personal pride.”

Eberle gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 9:17 of the first period, collecting his own rebound from a wraparound attempt before circling to the high slot and scoring on his backhand.

“It's about the culture, you know, it doesn't matter where you're at,” Seattle forward Frederick Gaudreau said. “You just got to keep going with your identity. And the most important part, for me, is to stick together, be together, doing it as a united team. And we are that. This group cares about each other, and that's the most important thing is to keep fighting for it. Doesn't matter. If standings are tougher and stuff like that, it doesn't matter. You just got to keep doing the right things and do it for each other.”

Toews tied it 1-1 at 12:39 with the first of three power-play goals for Winnipeg. Vilardi tipped Morrissey’s shot, which bounced high off the glass behind the Seattle net, and Toews took the puck off his chest before jamming it in.

“We got a little lucky,” Scheifele said. “But sometimes there’s other games where we've had a lot of good looks and haven't gotten a goal. So, you know, we just got rewarded for sticking with it.”

Vilardi put the Jets in front 2-1 at 9:55 of the second period when the rebound of Toews' shot pinballed to him in the slot on the power play.

“These are just things that are happening right now, we’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Lambert said. “We took a couple of penalties, we got a couple of bad breaks, going in off of (Seattle defenseman Ryan) Lindgren's stick, hits Lindgren’s foot, (and) goes right to Vilardi — just kind of a little bit of ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ in this situation right now.”

Connor pushed it to 3-1 at 12:09 with another power-play goal. Scheifele set him up for a one-timer from the top of the left circle that beat Grubauer glove side.

“I love it. I love that guy,” Scheifele said of Connor. “He’s absolutely incredible. He always goes to the right areas. He does so many things out there. I'm so lucky to play with him, so another night where I'm counting my lucky stars that I got him on my left side.”

Winnipeg went 3-for-3 on the power play while Seattle had no power-play opportunities.

“We didn't get a power play tonight, which is outrageous that, you know, you don’t get one power play in a game, but we didn’t," Lambert said. "We have to find a way to dig in.”

McCann cut it to 3-2 at 2:28 of the third period. Following a Jets turnover in the offensive zone, Kaapo Kakko sprung McCann for a 1-on-1 rush, and he scored five-hole with a wrist shot from the high slot through the legs of Winnipeg forward Vladislav Namestnikov.

“I feel like a lot of games this year, we kind of haven’t been able to kill off (penalties) and lose a lot of momentum,” McCann said. “And it's tough because I know where guys are trying. Our guys are trying to block shots and do the right things. I can't give you a reason why it's not going our way, but it's frustrating for everybody. We all see it, and we're trying to stay positive and grind through.”

Brad Lambert made it 4-2 at 5:59, using his speed to skate in and snap a shot into the corner above Daccord’s blocker from the right dot.

“It was obviously a big goal at that time,” Scheifele said. “They had just scored and he made a nice little move kind of backing off the 'D' and just kind of a sneaky release. He's been playing awesome. He's been getting better every game and it's been fun to watch him. So, I'm just looking forward to seeing him get better each and every game.”

Lane Lambert said of his nephew, Brad: “He's got skill, he’s got vision. Obviously, we gave him a little too much space there to take a shot tonight, and he made good on it.”

Connor scored his second of the game to make it 5-2 at 15:19. With Daccord already sprawled on the ice after making a save on Alex Iafallo's shot, Connor snapped the puck through traffic in front and over the goalie.

“I’ve got to give (Iafallo) a lot of credit on that one,” Arniel said. “He got to the net front, a great battle, the puck dropped out and he was tied up with a defenseman … there’s a little bit of a triangle to their offense, how (Scheifele and Connor) play with 'Al,' that just kind of opens up, especially the middle of the ice when teams go low.”

Namestnikov, who returned to the lineup after missing the previous 18 games with a lower-body injury, shot it into an empty net at 17:56 for the 6-2 final.

NOTES: Scheifele is the first player to record 900 points in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history. … Connor has four goals in his past two games. ... Winnipeg forward Nino Niederreiter had a hit and was plus-2 in 11:20 of ice time in his return after missing 20 games with a lower-body injury. … Morrissey became the third player, and first defenseman, in Jets/Thrashers history with four straight 40-assist seasons, following Blake Wheeler (five from 2015-16 – 2019-20) and Scheifele (four from 2018-19 – 2021-22).