Jets douse Flames to extend win streak to three

WINNIPEG - The third time was the charm for the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
Not only did the team earn its third straight victory with a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames, but Winnipeg (24-13-1) also took the lead three separate times, and defencemen were involved on all three Jets goals.
Brenden Dillon, Josh Morrissey, and Sam Gagner scored for the home side in the win, which evens the season series with the Flames at one a piece.
In total, five of the seven Winnipeg blue liners in the game had a point.
"It's a buy-in from the players that we've had from day one," said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. "The focus has been our defence have to get more involved with on the rush, and our forwards have to use them more to spread out the defence around the net."

The three-game win streak came at a perfect time for the Jets, immediately following the season's first three-game losing streak. All the wins have also come against Pacific Division opponents trying to chase the Jets in the standings.
"Tonight is a perfect example, a team that's been talked about in the Stanley Cup conversation, made some big changes this offseason and is a tough defensive and strong offensive team all together," said Dillon. "I think collectively it's not just been one or two lines. It's kind of been five guys on the ice understanding the role they've been doing."
And when the Jets needed him, Connor Hellebuyck was there to thwart the majority of Calgary's chances, finishing the night with 33 saves and picking up his 19th win of the season - the second most among goaltenders.
Both Hellebuyck and Jacob Markstrom stood tall for their teams in the opening 20 minutes, with nothing getting past two of the NH's most elite goaltenders.
In fact, the first goal of the game didn't come until there was 5:10 remaining in the second period, and it was the result of a Dylan to Dillon connection. Dylan DeMelo's wrist shot from the point was deflected by Dillon in a maze of bodies in front of Markstrom to make it 1-0 Jets.

It wasn't exactly the classic deflection, though. It didn't hit Dillon's stick on the way through.
"Pants, yeah. Big butt," he said, with only a slight grin. "(Mark Scheifele) was covering high, I dropped it off to him and knew that he was covering for me so I felt free to go to the net and, again, just a great shot by 'Mel."
It came just minutes after Hellebuyck stopped a tic-tac-toe passing play with MacKenzie Weegar being the victim of a right pad save by the 2020 Vezina Trophy winner, with the shot coming from just outside the crease.
"It's almost like we just expect him to be almost exceptional every night," said Dillon. "He picks up our bench when we need a save or a turning point like that, and for us to be able to get some run support for him it feels nice to reward him after how well he's been playing."
The Flames found a way to beat Hellebuyck with 59 seconds left in the second though, as Nikita Zadorov joined a rush up ice with Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm, then snapped one past the Jets goaltender from the slot to tie the game with his fifth of the season.

Winnipeg took a 2-1 lead midway through the third on a nifty give-and-go by Morrissey and Kyle Connor. Morrissey walked the blue line and lifted a backhand pass into the slot that Connor tapped right back to Morrissey, who had pinched in from the blue line to ditch two Flames defenders. Morrissey then wired it home, beating Markstrom on the glove side for his seventh of the season.
It was the only Jets goal of the night that wasn't a deflection, but it started in the corner, with Pierre-Luc Dubois (who got the secondary assist) getting the puck from low in the corner out to Morrissey.
"A lot of teams do that now, they collapse and take away a lot of your slot presence. In order to open that up, it's important to establish a presence from the point," said Gagner. "That seems to be what most teams in the league are looking to do now, collapse and take away slot chances. Calgary is one of those teams that does it really well. That was part of our game plan tonight and it worked out."
That lead didn't last long, as Mikael Backlund responded 1:36 later, slipping a backhand past Hellebuyck on a breakaway that developed in the neutral zone.

Gagner put the Jets in front for good just 2:22 after the Backlund goal. He got to the front of the net and tipped a Ville Heinola point shot through Markstrom, making his seventh of the season the eventual game-winner.
"It was a great shot by Ville. He kept it low, and allowed me to see it the whole way," Gagner said. "We talk about it a lot. Being good at both nets. Trying to keep guys away from our net and tying up sticks, and then getting in their cage."
The defence also did their job in the Winnipeg end of the ice in the final minute, as they kept the Flames from getting back on even terms for the third time. Adam Lowry also came up with a big block in the final seconds.
"I thought the plan was great," said Gagner. "Some of the execution and different things we're going to work on, we have some practice time so we'll do that. But that's a team that's chasing us in the standings. We want to stay ahead of them so we have to keep climbing. So an important win for us."