ANAHEIM – If the Winnipeg Jets want to pick up their second win in a row on this three-game road trip, they’ll have to do something no team has managed to do quite yet:
Beat the Anaheim Ducks (31-23-3) on their nine-game home stand.
Perhaps that stat is a bit misleading. Tonight marks the fourth game of that nine-game stretch at Honda Center for the Ducks. They’ve put together victories over Vegas, Seattle, and Edmonton so far, but their 18-8-1 record on home ice shows their success has been consistent all season.
So that’s the challenge facing the Jets (23-26-8), who are coming off a 3-2 overtime win in Vancouver on Wednesday. They got some help on the out-of-town scoreboard but need to continue chipping away at the nine-point gap between them and a wildcard spot.
For his part, Jets head coach Scott Arniel liked what he saw from his group against the Canucks, especially when it comes to the systematic tweaks they worked on over a week of practice.
“We were trying to do some things to play faster and to put the opposition on their heels and I thought we did that,” said Arniel. “Our (offensive) zone time (Wednesday) was huge. If you do that, you’ve got the opposition on their heels.”
Every line had a piece of that win, with two forward line combinations in particular leading the way. Natural Stat Trick calculated that Mark Scheifele’s line (with Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi) and Adam Lowry’s trio (with Cole Perfetti and Alex Iafallo) had a combined 36-16 edge in five-on-five shot attempts and racked up a 7-3 advantage in high-danger chances as well.
Perfetti, who notched the overtime winner to cap off a night with four shots on goal, feels the group is building in the right direction.
“(We’re) creating lots and when you are creating in that quantity, the puck is eventually going to go in the net,” Perfetti said. “I thought tonight was a good first game back from the break.”
Honda Center is not only the building that Perfetti made his National Hockey League debut in back on October 13, 2021, it’s also where he played his first regular season game of the 2025-26 campaign after battling an ankle injury late in the preseason.
“He got into some fast-moving water when he came back. I don’t think his ankle was really ever 100 per cent,” said Arniel on Wednesday morning. “Now he looks good, he looks more comfortable and he looks like the (Perfetti) that we saw a lot of last year. Confidence is a big thing and he has it. Hopefully, he continues that and just build off of what he did prior to the break.”
The Jets used Thursday as a travel day and didn’t practice, so morning skate will be the best indication of if Arniel and the coaching staff make any changes. Connor Hellebuyck, who won gold with the United States at the 2026 Olympics, will meet the team in Anaheim.
As for the Ducks, their 6-5 win over Edmonton on Wednesday saw them erase deficits of 2-0 and 4-2, with leading scorer Cutter Gauthier scoring the game-winner with 1:14 remaining in regulation. The victory pushed Anaheim into second in the Pacific Division for the time being, though Edmonton grabbed that spot back on Thursday with an 8-1 win in Los Angeles.
Gauthier is just one aspect of Anaheim’s balanced offensive attack. The 22-year-old leads the team with 26 goals, but is one of seven players on the Ducks roster with double-digit goals. Chris Kreider, Leo Carlsson, and rookie Beckett Sennecke are all at 19, Troy Terry and Mason McTavish have 13, and Mikael Granlund sits at 12.
Tonight’s game marks the second of three meetings between the two clubs, with the Jets looking to even the season series after Anaheim earned a 4-1 triumph on November 9.
Winnipeg gave up two power play goals to Carlsson that night, with Sennecke also adding a pair of goals. So while revenge might be on the minds of the Jets players coming into the game, the real focus is to continue building – and find a way to put another two points in the standings.
“We’re chasing a playoff spot,” said Arniel. “We’re not in the luxury of being in a playoff spot. So, it’s paramount that we’re off and running right away.”
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
