Morrissey helps Jets defeat Kraken

WINNIPEG -- Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor each had a goal and an assist, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-3 at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

"I just have a lot of confidence in the guys I play with," Wheeler said. "Ultimately, if you're productive and you're losing, what does it matter? It's nice to play well when the team's playing well."
Josh Morrissey scored at 13:50 of the third period to break a 3-3 tie.
"We know where we're at in the standings, and we need points and wins right now," Morrissey said. "I've liked where our game has been at since we've come back from the break, for the most part, and it was an emotional win for us last night and to rebound against a team that is coming in fresh and waiting for us here tonight."

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dominic Toninato also scored for the Jets (22-18-8), who won both games of a back-to-back following a 6-3 win against the Minnesota Wild and are 4-1-1 in their past six games. Eric Comrie made 20 saves.
Jordan Eberle and Marcus Johansson each had a goal and an assist for the Kraken (16-30-4). Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves.
"We created enough, I think the biggest thing is we gave up too much," Eberle said. "We hung [Grubauer] too much out to dry. They had some good chances and that's all stuff that we created and gave them."
Vince Dunn gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 3:21 of the first period with a snap shot from the point on the power play.
Johansson made it 2-0 at 12:15 with a wrist shot from the high slot.
"They took advantage of opportunities when they had the opportunities," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "I thought too many of their opportunities came off of our stick. We gave up nothing in the first period until the shorthanded goal. The second period, once they got the second goal, that gave them a little bit of life and the four of five chances they had in the second period came off of our stick."

Toninato cut it to 2-1 at 19:47 first with a shorthanded goal, finishing off a 2-on-1 on a pass from Adam Lowry.
"The shorthanded goal at the end of the first period [and] the early goal at the beginning of the second period obviously gave them a lot of life," Hakstol said. "That led to a good second period for them."
Dubois tied it 2-2 at 1:45 of the second period, coming out of the penalty box and scoring on a shot from the left face-off dot.
Wheeler made it 3-2 at 11:54, scoring on a shot from the slot.

"They took the lead, and quickly," Eberle said. "We needed to find a way to fight back into it. We had our chances, we had a ton of chances to give ourselves an opportunity to get ahead and to push beyond. … You trade chances with a good team that has a lot of firepower over there, that's what's going to happen."
Eberle tied it 3-3 at 7:02 of the third period, scoring in front on a centering pass from Johansson.
"I really thought that we felt we were in control of the game at that point," Jets coach Dave Lowry said. "Obviously you're disappointed to give up that goal but we stayed with and got the goal that we were looking for."
After Morrissey broke the tie on a shot from the right circle, Kyle Connor scored into an empty net with less than one second remaining for the 5-3 final.
NOTES: Lowry said he will have updates on forwards Andrew Copp and Cole Perfetti on Friday. Copp (undisclosed) did not play after being a game-time decision, and Perfetti (undisclosed) left the game late in the third period. … The Kraken are 2-5-0 in their past seven games. … Former Jets forward Mason Appleton had two hits and a blocked shot in 15:00 of ice time in his first game in Winnipeg since being selected by the Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. … It was the Kraken's first game in Winnipeg. The Jets won 3-0 on Dec. 9 in Seattle in the first game between the teams; they play again Apr. 13 in Winnipeg. … Dunn has three goals in his past six games. … Wheeler has scored 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past four games. … Mark Scheifele's five-game goal streak ended.