The Winnipeg Jets made their first appearance in California this season facing the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. The Jets beat Anaheim 4-2 and moved into first place in the Central Division with goals from Nino Niederreiter, Morgan Barron, Gabe Vilardi and Mark Scheifele. Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves to improve to 12-4-1 in his last 17 starts. The Jets will travel to San Jose to face the Sharks on Tuesday.
LOSS OF CONNOR
Kyle Connor was involved in a knee-on-knee collision with Ryan Strome 27 seconds into the second period and the Jets leading goal scorer did not return thanks to a lower body injury. Mark Scheifele went after Strome after the questionable hit and ended up fighting the Ducks forward. Strome was given a major for kneeing and a game misconduct. Connor has been extremely durable in his career missing just three games since 2017-18. The Jets have already played a substantial amount of games without Gabriel Vilardi this season and the hope is it's not a long-term injury for Connor. Rick Bowness said that the Jets forward will be further evaluated in San Jose.
GUTSY WIN
It almost took the Jets a full period to recover after losing Connor early in the second, but in the third period they took over. After Adam Henrique made it 2-0 at the 1:15 mark of the final frame, the Jets responded 43 seconds later with a goal from Nino Niederreiter and then less than four minutes later, Morgan Barron jumped on a loose puck to tie it. That set the stage for Gabriel Vilardi’s first goal as a Jet when he redirected a Josh Morrissey shot at 18:18. Mark Scheifele would round out the scoring by scoring into an empty net at with 29 seconds left.
“You know you see a guy go down like that in the second period you could tell we were in a mellow mood,” said Scheifele.
“Not a whole lot was happening. And then third period we just kind of regrouped a little bit and battled back and a lot of great plays. That was a big win for us.”
