Three things - Two more for Toffoli

The Winnipeg Jets got goals from five different players in a 6-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena tonight. With the win, the Jets (43-19-5) moved back into first place in the Central Division and recorded their first victory in Columbus since March 3, 2019. Tyler Toffoli had two, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Vladislav Namestnikov and Logan Stanley added singles for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for the Jets who are now off to New York to face the Rangers on Tuesday night.

QUICK START

There is a simple recipe for the Jets when it comes to wins – scoring first. They are 29-3-1 when they get the game’s first goal and like last game, it was Kyle Connor opening the scoring. Connor one-timed a Mark Scheifele pass in behind Elvis Merzlikins 1:26 into the first period. Winnipeg had scored all of one goal in two previous visits to Nationwide Arena. Scheifele recorded his 40^th assist of the season and has six 40 assist campaigns in his career, two behind Blake Wheeler in Jets/Thrashers history.

CHEMISTRY BUILDING ON MONAHAN LINE

It hasn’t taken long for the line of Sean Monahan, Nikolaj Ehlers and Tyler Toffoli to start creating chemistry. The line scored a couple of goals on Friday in Winnipeg, and they went back to work in the second period tonight in Columbus. 1:10 into the middle frame, Toffoli sent a no-look pass from behind the net to Ehlers and he scored his 20^th of the season to make it 2-0. Just over eight and a half minutes later, off the rush, Ehlers spotted Toffoli coming into the offensive zone and Toffoli scored his third goal in the last two games to make it 3-0. Toffoli would round out the scoring in the third, picking off a Damon Severson pass in the neutral zone and going top shelf on Merzlikins on the breakaway for his 30^th of the year.  The trio combined for seven points on the night.

"Yeah. The game the other night, we didn't play a whole lot of special teams, so tonight it was obviously fun,” said Toffoli.

“A lot of time together, I thought we did some really good things. Hopefully, it only gets better."

STANIMAL GETS ONE

Logan Stanley returned to the lineup along with Nate Schmidt Friday night against Anaheim and the duo remained on the Jets blueline tonight against the Blue Jackets. Stanley blasted a shot from the left side that found its way through a screen provided by David Gustafsson. It was Stanley’s first goal of the season and his first since March 8, 2023. The Jets now have three goals from defencemen in the last two games (Stanley, DeMelo and Schmidt).

“It felt good,” said Stanley.

“Help the guys win and everyone loves to score goals once in a while.”