Three things - Ehlers hat trick helps Jets to 10th win

The Winnipeg Jets remain the only unbeaten team on the road this season (6-0) following a 6-2 win in Columbus over the Blue Jackets on Friday night. Nikolaj Ehlers had his first hat trick since 2018, Mason Appleton, Josh Morrissey and Gabe Vilardi had the other goals for the Jets. Kyle Connor’s point streak is now at 11 to start the season when he got the primary assist on Vilardi’s goal in the third period. Eric Comrie made 20 saves to improve to 3-0 on the season. Winnipeg will return home for a four-game homestand that starts Sunday afternoon against Tampa Bay.

EHLERS TURN

Wednesday night, it was the Scheifele line that set the tone for the Jets in Detroit. This evening in Ohio, it was the Namestnikov trio led by Nikolaj Ehlers who had a four-point night including his fifth career hat trick. Ehlers opened the scoring at 5:13 of the first blasting a slap shot past Elvis Merzlikins. After Columbus tied the game at one, Ehlers would get his second of the period snapping a shot to the far post for a 2-1 Jets lead after one. The Danish forward finished the hat trick with a 1:09 left in the second, Ehlers would follow up his rebound and backhanded the puck into the net for his sixth of the season.

"Felt pretty good in warmup and Nino said he'd be pretty disappointed if I didn't score tonight with that warm up. So it was pretty funny how that worked out. Yeah. I mean, first goal, I love coming down that side with the clapper. Luckily, it went in," said Ehlers.

"So from that on, I think as a line, played really well, and that created a lot of chances. We could have had a few more but it felt good."

JETS POWER PLAY AGAIN

Winnipeg’s power play didn’t get many opportunities in Columbus going 1-for-2 with the man advantage against the Blue Jackets. The Jets have gone a league-best 14-for-31 (44.8%). The Jets have scored a power play goal in each of the past four games, the last time Winnipeg scored a power play goal in four consecutive games was Nov. 2-9/23. With the Jets leading 4-2 in the third, Ehlers slid a pass over to Scheifele and he spotted a wide-open Josh Morrissey who hammered a one timer past Merzlikins to give the Jets a three-goal lead.

DOMINANCE

The Blue Jackets were off to a great start offensively this season with Dean Evason behind the bench scoring 35 goals in their first nine games. After the Jackets tied the game at one at 11:02 of the opening frame, Winnipeg took over at Nationwide Arena. The Jets outshot the Jackets 43-22 and had 72 shot attempts compared to Columbus’ 45. The Jets have allowed three goals or less in 10 of their 11 games this season.

"We're trying to keep people out of our end of the rink, so that means you are playing, probably, down in the other end," said Jets head coach Scott Arniel.

"You try, when you get teams caught on the ropes there a little bit and getting tired and start zone-timing them, that's when we try to keep our foot on the gas and keep the pressure on them. It's not always going to end up that way, but you gotta take what's being handed to you right now."