Ehlers scores natural hat trick for Jets in win against Oilers

EDMONTON -- Nikolaj Ehlers scored a hat trick and had an assist to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Monday.
Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists, and Blake Wheeler had three assists for Winnipeg (1-2-0). Connor Hellebuyck made 37 saves in his first start of the season.

WATCH: [All Jets vs. Oilers highlights]
"We all knew what we needed to do and are capable of," Ehlers said. "We didn't do that the first two games, but we showed it tonight. We played good tonight, simple and fast. We were able to find the holes. We just have to be able to find a way to keep that going."
Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored, and goaltender Cam Talbot made 38 saves for Edmonton (1-2-0). The Oilers have lost two straight after shutting out the Calgary Flames 3-0 in the season opener.

Winnipeg allowed 13 goals in their first two losses of the season.
"I am very proud of the guys in front of me," Hellebuyck said. "Everyone really dug in and dug deep and pulled out a team win tonight."
Scheifele gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 8:56 of the first period.
Kulikov made it 2-0 at 16:27 with his first goal with Winnipeg. He took a drop pass from Ehlers in the slot and sent a wrist shot past Talbot.

Edmonton outshot Winnipeg 20-11 in the first period.
"The big concern is where we are with the mental state," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "We're not near competitive enough. We're not outworking teams. It feels like it in moments of the game, but consistently from minutes 1 to 60 the last two games we haven't come close to outworking teams, and structurally, we're about as loose as we can be. We're missing assignments."
Draisaitl scored at 12:53 of the second period to make it 2-1 on a pass from Connor McDavid.
Nugent-Hopkins tied it 2-2 40 seconds later, splitting the Jets defense and lifting a shot over Hellebuyck.
Ehlers scored 1:09 apart in the second to restore the Jets' two-goal lead. He kept the puck on a 3-on-2 rush and picked the corner on Talbot at 16:48 to make it 3-2. He scored again at 17:57 to put Winnipeg up 4-2.
"We do still have a young team and guys have to build confidence in themselves and respect the fact that the opposition has good players and bad things are going to happen," Wheeler said. "But all we can do is get back to our game and have confidence that we can prevail in the end."

Winnipeg outshot Edmonton 19-7 in the second.
Ehlers completed his second NHL hat trick at 18:46 of the third period to put Winnipeg up 5-2.
Hellebuyck made 12 saves in the third period for his first win against Edmonton in five career games.
"What I thought for Connor was so important, he looked calm when he didn't have control of the puck but it was two or three feet around him," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "He was able to hold his body position in some of those scrums."

Goal of the game

Scheifele knocked the puck out of midair on his backhand in front of the Oilers net and took a quick forehand shot that beat Talbot. Winnipeg was being outshot 12-4 in the first period prior to the goal.

Saves of the game

Hellebuyck made a pad save on a hard shot from Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom and stopped Ryan Strome on the rebound to keep Winnipeg up 1-0 at 14:02 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Wheeler slid a cross-crease pass through Klefbom to Ehlers, who scored his second goal of the game to restore Winnipeg's two-goal lead with 2:03 remaining in the second period.

They said it

"I don't think we remembered how hard it is to win. I've experienced this in the past. You have to understand how hard it is. Our guys don't get that yet." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan
"There wasn't any panic, even though the first two games were about as bad as you could script it. Guys were still coming to the rink with a good mentality and trying to get better. It was a good sign, when your team responds like this and everybody does their job. These are the types of results you can expect when everyone does that." -- Jets captain Blake Wheeler

Need to know

Wheeler played his 700th NHL game. He has missed three games since the 2012-13 season. … McDavid has six assists in six career games against the Jets, but has yet to score against them. Winnipeg is the only Western Conference opponent McDavid has not scored against. … Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien did not play because of a lower-body injury.

What's next

Jets: At the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; SNV, TSN 3, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, TVA Sports, NHL.TV)