Jets pick up 30th win with dominant performance in Ottawa

There is just something satisfying about milestone numbers.
The Winnipeg Jets picked up their 30th win of the season with a 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators, and on top of that, Blake Wheeler's three-point effort gave him 900 career points, while Kyle Connor hit 400 career points on the same night.
But all that mattered to the Jets (30-16-1) in the moment was the win. They're the second team in the National Hockey League (behind the Boston Bruins) to reach 30 wins, and the victory was especially satisfying after dropping the first two games on the road trip.
"Our PK was great, our power play produced, and we were good five-on-five. That's a good recipe," said Josh Morrissey, who had an assist in the win. "They play hard, they play a physical game. We didn't back down and we took the play to them for a lot of the game. Obviously they're on a back-to-back, but it was a good effort by us."
Special teams wise, the Jets scored twice on the power play on eight opportunities, killed off all four Senators (20-23-3) power plays, but also scored three times at five-on-five. To this point on the trip, Winnipeg had yet to score at even strength, so those were equally important.

Jets head coach Rick Bowness cited Wheeler's goal, which ended up being the insurance marker that banked in off his shin, as the type of goal the Jets needed to get back rolling at five-on-five.
"We talked to the players before the game. 'We need a greasy goal here from our forwards,'" he said. "Wheels goes to the net, Neal puts it around there, and it hits us and goes in. We haven't had one of those for a while. You just need one of those sometimes to get you going five on five."
Before the five-on-five game got going, the power play started the offence, converting for the 11th time in its last 37 opportunities.
In fact, the Jets needed just 28 seconds of their first power play to get the game's first goal. At the top of the zone, Nikolaj Ehlers sent a pass to Josh Morrissey at the right point, then went right to the net, just outside of the left post. Morrissey threaded a perfect seam pass to Ehlers, who beat Anton Forsberg for a 1-0 Jets lead.

Oh, and that goal led to another milestone. It was the 168th goal of Ehlers' career, passing Frans Nielsen for the most by a Danish player in the NHL.
"It's awesome. He's a fantastic player for us," said Scheifele of the milestone. "He played great for us, too. We're still only a few games in from coming back, so we still have more and more to come.'
Ottawa pulled even 4:14 later, as Josh Norris converted off a set face-off play. Claude Giroux won the draw back to his right, and Norris was waiting right there to fire it past the glove side of Connor Hellebuyck.
That was the only puck that got by Hellebuyck, as the all-star goaltender finished with 25 saves on 26 shots.
"You watch some of those saves, they're timely saves," said Bowness. "He's a great goalie and a great competitor, but I love his attitude. He comes to the rink every day and he enjoys it and he works his butt off and he's just a great kid to be around."

Winnipeg took the lead back five minutes into the second, with Connor taking advantage of Thomas Chabot losing his stick. It helped open a passing lane to Scheifele - who was parked in the left circle - and Connor sent a pass right on his tape. Scheifele pounded it past Forsberg, giving Scheifele his team-leading 27th of the season, with Connor's assist being the 400th point of his career.
It was exactly the bounce back the Jets needed after Ottawa had tied the game.
"We liked our game in Toronto a lot more than the score showed. We gave up a little bit too much off of the rush play, some breakaways, two-on-ones," said Scheifele. "That was a stepping stone in terms of offence and kind of dialed in a few more things defensively and the way our team activates in the O-zone, and today was a great showing of that."
Wheeler gave the Jets a two-goal cushion with just under seven minutes to go in the middle frame, as he was camped out just outside the Ottawa crease and had an Ehlers wrist shot go off his shin pad and in. Wheeler's 12th gave the Jets their first two-goal lead of the road trip.

"We rolled it over three times with some of their guys still stuck out there," said Morrissey. "When we can do that, get that possession, but the key is we're still getting shots and we're not just on the outside looking to make the extra play. We're putting pucks to the net. That's how Wheels scores that goal. He goes to the net and we put one there."
The Jets weren't satisfied with that, and added two more in the third.
First, Scheifele finished off a great passing sequence. Wheeler's drop pass high in the zone put Axel Jonsson-Fjallby in a spot to hit Scheifele back door to make it 4-1 with 3:53 remaining in the third.

Then, Cole Perfetti's short side effort with 1:43 left in regulation gave him his seventh goal of the season, and first in 15 games. Wheeler's secondary assist also gave him 900 points.
The Jets are right back at it on Sunday night, as they cross the border after three straight against Canadian opponents to take on the Philadelphia Flyers.