Laine scores twice, gets 100th goal for Jets in win against Blackhawks

WINNIPEG -- Nikolaj Ehlers scored a hat trick, Patrik Laine had two goals, and the Winnipeg Jets held on for a 6-5 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Bell MTS Place on Thursday.

Ehlers gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 3:52 of the first period, a 3-2 lead at 1:01 of the second period and a 6-3 lead at 9:45 of the third period.
"You hope for it, you work for it," Ehlers said. "I feel like I've been playing some good hockey lately. It's got better and better. My defensive game was not good today but I worked as hard as I can to continue growing as a player. And today I got rewarded."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Jets highlights]
Laine, at 20 years, 224 days, became the fourth-youngest player in NHL history to score 100 regular-season goals. He joined Wayne Gretzky (20 years, 40 days) on March 7, 1981, Jimmy Carson (20 years, 116 days) on Nov. 13, 1988 and Brian Bellows (20 years, 179 days) on Feb. 27, 1985, with his first of the game at 1:43 of the first period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
"I knew it was going to come eventually," said Laine, who will finish November with 18 goals. "When you work hard you're going to get it at some point. Good to get it out of the way and try to chase 200 now. It was a good win."
Jacob Trouba also scored for the Jets (14-8-2), and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.
Laine scored his NHL-leading 21st goal at 1:18 of the third period to make it 5-3.
"It feels like a lot of my shots are going in and that's why I'm trying to shoot every time I get the chance," Laine said. "Like I said before, I could still play better hockey. Goals are not always telling the whole story. Like tonight, I think I could have played better hockey."

Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele each had three assists for Winnipeg.
John Hayden and Artem Anisimov each had a goal and an assist, and Marcus Kruger, Jan Rutta and Dominik Kahun scored for the Blackhawks (9-12-5), who are 1-4-0 in their past five games. Corey Crawford made 27 saves.
"We need to get out of our own way," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "When we get out of our own way we will be all right. Until then we are going to struggle."
Kruger tied the game 1-1 at 3:03 of the first period. Hayden pulled the Blackhawks into a tie at 2-2 at 8:10, scoring on the rebound after David Kampf was stopped on a breakaway.
Trouba extended a 3-2 lead to 4-2 at 1:46 of the second before Rutta put Chicago back within one, scoring at 9:31 to make it 4-3.

"Can't explain it all," Blackhawks forward Duncan Keith said of Chicago's slow starts recently. "The team [has] come out ready. We have to just be better. There's nothing more to be said than that. Be better. Just be better."
Kahun cut the lead to 6-4 at 13:10 of the third period, and Anisimov made it 6-5 at 17:08.

They said it

"I think we have to start competing. That's where it all starts. We have to come up with those 50-50 battles. When we don't do that we get in trouble in our own end and they get chance after chance. We got to find a way to bear down on those and then we're going to get some confidence in our game because we're winning battles and you get better offense from that." -- Blackhawks forward Marcus Kruger
"I mean, the run he's been on -- 11 goals in a week -- obviously something I've never seen. You know, he's the type of guy that you asked him why he hasn't scored a goal in five games but you know something like that is right around the corner. What a blessing he is to have, tie game, down a goal, you're never out of it with a shot like that." -- Jets forward Blake Wheeler on Patrik Laine

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Need to know

Laine tied Ilya Kovalchuk for the fewest games in a season to score 20 goals in Jets/Thrashers history with 24. Kovalchuk did it on Nov. 29, 2007. … Chicago has allowed 14 goals in their past two games and 26 in their past five. … Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien was diagnosed with a concussion on Thursday and will be placed on injured reserve on Friday. … Defenseman Cameron Schilling got his first NHL point in his Jets debut, an assist on Ehlers' second goal. It was his seventh NHL game and first since March 11, 2015 when he was with the Washington Capitals. … Scheifele has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games.

What's next

Blackhawks: At the Nashville Predators on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, WGN, NHL.TV)
Jets:At the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, CITY, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)