Jets defeat Senators for 11th straight victory

OTTAWA -- The Winnipeg Jets extended their franchise-record winning streak to 11 games with a 4-1 victory against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.

“It’s not going to be pretty every night,” Winnipeg forward Cole Perfetti said. “We’ve won 11 in a row. … Not every game is going to be great, but if we’re still finding ways to win when we don’t play our best, I think that says a lot about our group.”

Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele each had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves for the Jets (42-14-3). Hellebuyck has started eight games during the streak.

“As much as we had opportunities -- power play, different scenarios -- we gave up some chances and ‘Helly’ was there,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “Like I said, we win hockey games in different ways, different fashions, and tonight, Helly had to be big. He had to make some key saves for us to keep us in a game that we weren’t really good at early on.”

The Jets haven’t lost since Jan. 20, when they fell 5-2 at the Utah Hockey Club.

“I thought ‘Buycky’ was real solid back there and he saved our bacon quite a few times,” Winnipeg forward Mason Appleton said. “It was a vintage game by him. And then anytime you can score in bunches like that, obviously it gives you a real confidence boost and a good chance and kind of gets you feeling good.”

Tim Stutzle had an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games, Thomas Chabot scored, and Linus Ullmark made 35 saves for the Senators (29-25-4), who have lost five in a row.

“You’re always disappointed when you lose, but I thought it was a step in the right direction for our team,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I felt like we found our legs a little bit, found our work ethic, forecheck was better, breakout was better, spent a lot of quality time in the offensive zone. It’s a good team over there and we played a hard-fought game.”

The Senators were without forward and captain Brady Tkachuk (lower body) for the second straight game. Center Josh Norris (mid-body) missed his sixth game in a row, and center Shane Pinto (upper body) was out for the fourth consecutive game.

“I’m not going to lie, those are very big pieces of our team,” Chabot said. “Very talented centers that give us a lot of depth, so we’re obviously missing them. But as you guys all know, we’re definitely not the first team to go through this this season and we won’t be the last one, probably.”

Perfetti gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 7:46 of the first period. Nikolaj Ehlers intercepted a Stutzle pass attempt and threw the puck toward the net from the left point before Perfetti redirected it in.

“Little rocky start, which you can’t really do when you’re playing one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the League,” Ullmark said. “You’ve got to be firing on all cylinders from minute one to minute 60.”

Appleton made it 2-0 at 9:03. After stopping Nino Niederreiter’s shot on the rush, Ullmark lost sight of the puck on the ice in front of him, and Appleton poked it in.

“That was probably the ugliest [win], I think,” Appleton said. “I think [Arniel] would say that, too. But at the end of the day, when you put together a streak like this, not every win is going to look the same. That would be almost impossible. So, I think it’s a testament to the kind of team we are and how deep we are and finding different ways to win.”

Connor pushed it to 3-0 at 8:04 of the second period with a quick shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle to the short side off a pass from Gabriel Vilardi.

Chabot cut it to 3-1 at 8:53 with a wrist shot over Hellebuyck’s right shoulder from the left face-off dot. Stutzle assisted on the goal, giving him 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) during his point streak.

“You’ve got to figure a way very quickly to get out of this,” Chabot said of the losing streak.

Scheifele scored into an empty net at 17:04 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

“Tonight, you don’t want to play like that, but when you’ve got the best goalie in the world, it helps,” Perfetti said. “Some timely goals and you end up winning a game that sometimes you might not win. Just move on and go to Nashville (on Thursday).”

Ottawa defenseman Tyler Kleven left the game midway through the first period with a lower-body injury after a fight with Adam Lowry. There was no update on Kleven.

NOTES: Hellebuyck’s eight-game winning streak is the second-longest in franchise history behind his own run of nine games set in 2017-18. He now has the longest winning streak in the NHL this season. … The Jets improved to 25-3-2 when scoring first this season, the best such record in the NHL. … Ullmark has allowed three or more goals in each of his past four starts. … Stutzle also has a nine-game assist streak (11 assists).