Jets gain in Central Division with win against Coyotes

WINNIPEG --The Winnipeg Jets gained ground in the Central Division with a 2-1 win at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves, including 17 in the second period, and Nikolaj Ehlers and Adam Lowry scored for the Jets (40-29-3), who had lost three of four.
Winnipeg moved within five points of the Colorado Avalanche for third in the Central and remained two points behind the Seattle Kraken for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Seattle defeated the Dallas Stars 5-4 in overtime on Tuesday.
"That's three games with that team and they're all [one-goal games]," Jets coach Rick Bowness said of the Coyotes. "So maybe they're a whole lot better team than people realize, which they are. They move the puck really well, there is a four-man rush every time. They're hard to play against."

Barrett Hayton scored to extend his point streak to eight, and Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves for the Coyotes (27-33-11), who were 6-0-2 during an eight-game point streak and had won four straight.
"I thought we played good in the first period, we just made mistakes with execution," Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. "We gave up two breakaways and a 2-on-1 on an execution mistake. … It's just some nights you decide to fumble the puck deep, you fumble the puck at the blue line and you give up a breakaway."
Ehlers gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 4:17 of the first period, scoring on a breakaway off his own rebound.
Lowry made it 2-0 at 11:33, scoring short-handed on a one-timer on a 2-on-1 rush.
"Anytime you get a 2-on-1, you want to hit it hard and get it above the pad," Lowry said. "[Morgan] Barron made such a great pass, so it made my job pretty easy. It landed flat on my stick and fortunately I got all of it. But [Vejmelka] played extremely well against us here. Again, he only gave up two and gave them a chance to win."

Hayton cut it to 2-1 at 11:46 of the second period when he scored from his knees in the crease off a backhand pass by Clayton Keller from the right circle. He has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his streak.
"Playing fast, playing north and really sitting on them, not giving them any time, I think that was a big thing," Bowness said. "We were able to hem them in a couple times on good changes, and stuff like that, and being dogs on the puck, so I think that was a big factor in the second."
Arizona has points in 13 of its past 18 games (10-5-3).
"[The Coyotes] have been playing well lately and they've got a lot of skill, specifically a couple of lines that will make plays," Morrissey said. "They're playing well. They took it to us. We got some huge saves [from Hellebuyck] and we responded well in the third."
NOTES: Arizona's point streak was the second longest active in the NHL behind the Los Angeles Kings (8-0-2). … Keller extended his point streak to nine games (seven goals, 10 assists). … Jets forward Nino Niederreiter became the third Switzerland-born player to play 800 NHL games behind Mark Hardy (915) and Roman Josi (827). … The Jets went 0-for-6 on the power play and have not scored in 19 opportunities in the past five games.