Vilardi scores in 4th straight, Jets defeat Red Wings

WINNIPEG -- Gabriel Vilardi scored for the fourth straight game and had two assists for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday.

Vilardi has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past four games.

“You watch him every game, his confidence is growing,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “He's so good around the net because he hangs on to it. He's so big and strong, [he's] got great vision and has patience with the puck of when to pass it and when not to pass it and hang on to it. He's been very, very impressive for us."

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Nikolaj Ehlers each had a goal and an assist for the Jets (19-9-3), who have points in eight of nine (7-1-1). Laurent Brossoit made 26 saves.

“We talked about it before the game, about the PK, and [Brossoit] made some really nice saves,” Jonsson-Fjallby said. “And the PK was pretty good today. It was pretty dialed in.”

Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, and Olli Maatta also scored for the Red Wings (15-13-4), who have lost four straight and seven of eight (1-6-1). James Reimer made 36 saves.

“It’s [the losses] spiralling right now,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “It’s a lot of hockey, but we don’t make excuses. We had to come into here and find a way, and we didn’t. We found the opposite way. We lost our [defensive]-zone coverage. We’ve been struggling with that as of late. They exposed us tonight, and we hung Reimer out to dry with backdoors and extended [offensive]-zone shifts for Winnipeg. We’ve really tried it all the last couple of weeks -- different line combinations, different coaching coming in hard trying to pump us up, or whatever it is. But it’s got to come from within the room and every guy’s got to be better”

Neal Pionk gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 15:38 of the first period on a wrist shot from the blue line.

Maatta tied it 1-1 at 1:44 of the second period. Kane found Maatta with a cross-ice pass where he scored with a wrist shot from inside the circle that beat Hellebuyck high blocker side for his first goal of the season.

“It’s just complete hockey. It’s everyone,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “There’s those small lapses. There’s some team lapses and there’s some individual lapses and they’re finding us and it’s making it hard on our game.”

Ehlers made it 2-1 Jets at 7:41 when Vilardi’s pass from behind the goal line set Ehlers up for a quick shot from the net side.

“Unbelievable smart player,” Ehlers said of Vilardi, who had missed 18 games with a knee injury. “To be able to come back after an injury like he had that early in the season and play the way he's playing right now is, you know I've been through it. It's hard, but it's really impressive and the work he does in the [offensive] zone behind their net, in the corners with his stick, his stick-handling is unbelievable. And obviously those passes that he makes, you know we just have to put it into the empty net pretty much. Makes our job a little easier but us as a line we feel good, we read off each other really well, and that's exciting for us.”

Dylan Samberg’s stretch pass off the sideboards sent Jonsson-Fjallby in on a breakaway for his first goal of the season at 10:50 to make it 3-1.

“I think we are all on the same page,” Jonsson-Fjallby said of his line wirh Morgan Barron and David Gustafsson. “We skate a lot, go north, keep it simple. Defense first … We, as a line, have gotten better and better all year. It’s nice that it finally paid off.”

Vilardi extended it to 4-1 at 16:10 when Cole Perfetti set him up for a backdoor tap-in after Ehlers dug the puck out of the right corner against three Red Wings players.

“We’re scoring goals, but we also want to be better -- I want to be better,” Ehlers said. “But those two guys [linemates Vilardi and Mark Scheifele] are pretty fun to play with. They read the game really well. We had a ton of chances. We’ve got even better.”

Kane cut it to 4-2 at 8:41 of the third period by swatting in a rebound from the low slot.

“I feel like we really tried,” Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider said. "It just feels like we were always a step too late or not really connected on the things that we tried to get done, like the forecheck or the breakouts. One split second, we were kind of off, then we were chasing the game. I think we just lost the battles today. You look at the scoreboard and finding yourself down a couple, then obviously it’s self-chasing.”

Vilardi set up Scheifele for his team-leading 12th goal of the season at 15:12 for the 5-2 final.

“It was just an all-around really solid team effort,” Bowness said. “Our team game has been really good. And you don’t have a team game unless you have everyone contributing and looking the same out there without the puck.”

NOTES: Kane has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past two games. … Vilardi, traded to the Jets by the Los Angeles Kings on June 27, has the longest goal streak by any player in their first season with Winnipeg since the team moved from Atlanta for the 2011-12 season. Only Maxim Afinogenov posted a longer such run with the franchise -- five games in 2009-10 with the Atlanta Thrashers. … Ehlers has nine points (four goals, five assists) on a four-game point streak. … The Jets are 15-1-1 when leading after two periods. Only two teams have more wins in that scenario (Vancouver Canucks, 19-0-0; Los Angeles Kings, 15-0-1).