WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets closed out their four game homestand with a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday. Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets who moved their record to 14-8-2 and are one point back of Dallas for second in the Central Division. The Jets will practice the next two days before departing to Denver for the start of a four-game road trip.
LAURENT BROSSOIT
The Jets knew coming in that they were going to spend a lot of time in the zone considering Carolina leads the NHL in offensive zone time. The Hurricanes did just that through the majority of the opening period and Laurent Brossoit was ready stopping all 15 shots he faced and at one point the shots were 12-0 Carolina. Brossoit was steady all the way through the second until an unfortunate bounce off the skate of Dylan DeMelo during a wraparound attempt by Martin Necas ruined the shutout bid with under a minute to go in the period. In the end, Brossoit had his best start since returning to the Jets and a key reason why they won tonight. Brossoit improves to 7-2-2 in his career when facing 40 or more shots.
“To be honest, I kind of like to get a lot of shots early and often, gets me into the game. But we knew they were going to do that, that's kind of their MO,” said Brossoit.
“They throw everything on net especially in the first period and they did that tonight and got me into the game.”
TOP LINE
Since Nikolaj Ehlers was bumped up to the top line, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Ehlers have been really close to having a huge night together. Monday night, they were excellent at creating offence combing for six points. The Jets scored on their second shot of the night when Ehlers hit Connor on the fly, and he roofed a shot over Antti Raanta’s blocker for his 15th goal of the campaign. The trio would combine again on the second Jet goal that saw Ehlers take a pass from Scheifele in the high slot and also scoring blocker side for the game winner.