Connor getting hot at right time for surging Jets

WINNIPEG -- When the puck arrived on Kyle Connor's stick in overtime, it was at the right place and right time for the Winnipeg Jets forward with the surging confidence.
Connor scored at 3:16 of overtime to give
the Jets a 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks
at Bell MTS Place on Friday, becoming the second rookie in NHL history to score in overtime in back-to-back games for his team. Forward Andrew Cogliano, now with the Ducks, did it in three straight games for the Edmonton Oilers from March 7-11, 2008.

It was Connor's sixth goal in his past five games. He has 28 goals, second among rookies behind Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks, who has 29 but is out for the rest of the season with an upper-body injury.
"It feels good," Connor said after taking a pass from center Mark Scheifele and finishing off a 2-on-1 overtime rush with a shot between the pads of Ducks goalie John Gibson. "Every time you score in this League it's a good feeling. It's so tough to do. I'm just focusing on getting better each game, and that's our biggest focus on the team."

Connor scored the overtime winner when
the Jets defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-1
on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old from Shelby Township, Michigan, has worked his way onto to the Jets' top line, playing left wing with Scheifele and right wing Blake Wheeler.
"He's got almost 30 goals, that's a pretty hot stick all year," Wheeler said. "He can score goals. You can tell he's been doing it his whole life. Give him enough chances. I think he had nine or 10 in the slot tonight. You can't give him that 11th one, though. He'll find a way."
Connor had 10 shot attempts against the Ducks. Five of them were on goal, including his fifth game-winner of the season.
"He's awesome," Scheifele said. "He's gotten better and better as the season's gone on. He goes to the right spots. He battles hard in the corner, he goes to the right areas, he goes to the dirty areas. He does everything so well and obviously his knack for scoring is top notch. He's been really fun to play with this season. It's exciting to see him grow like that."
Connor didn't start the season with the Jets. But after he had five points (three goals, two assists) in four games with Manitoba of the American Hockey League, the Jets recalled him on Oct. 16. Connor has worked his way up the depth chart and increased his trust factor with coach Paul Maurice.

Before his hot streak, Connor had gone six games without a point.
"He had that little block there where he wasn't scoring," Maurice said. "He seems to me that he's relaxed a little bit when the puck is on his stick.
"Confidence for any player is such an important thing and can't be given to anybody. You get one and then all of a sudden you get that good feeling and then you attach that good feeling to some really good play. He'd been playing very, very well and not scoring, so he wasn't very far off it. A little bit of confidence and away he goes."
The 17th pick in the 2015 NHL Draft said he didn't know why he's gotten hot.
"I couldn't tell you," he said. "If I knew I'd be doing it every time. I'm trying to focus on the little things. I think that translates for our whole line. We're doing those things well defensively, and we'll get our chances and eventually we'll bury them."
The Jets (45-19-10) are 4-0-0 on their six-game homestand and are six points behind the first-place Nashville Predators in the Central Division; they host the Predators on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-TN, NHL.TV). Winnipeg has reached 100 points for the first time in franchise history. The Jets had 99 points in 2014-15, their only Stanley Cup Playoffs appearance since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011.
"Yeah, you'd take that," Maurice said of his team's performance. "You'd be pleased with it. There's not really a place for us to reflect, we're in the middle of the season. We've played well."