Scheifele three point night in impressive win over Vegas

WINNIPEG - Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists to lead the Winnipeg Jets past the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 at Canada Life Centre. The Jets (30-29-12, 72 points) captured a regulation win to leapfrog the Sharks (32-30-6, 70 points) in the Western Conference standings and now sit five points back of the Predators (34-28-9, 77 points) for Wild Card 2. Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the Jets who will host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.

FORGET ABOUT THE START

After what happened later in the period, it’s easy to forget how this game started. The Golden Knights actually jumped out to a 9–0 lead in shots before the first TV timeout. But from that point on, the Jets found their legs and took control.

They opened the scoring thanks to a great setup from Josh Morrissey who fed Kyle Connor and he buried his team-leading 32nd goal of the season and continues to be a force at home.

He’s now recorded a point in each of his last five home games and in nine of his last 11. Even more impressive—Connor has picked up at least one point in 30 different home games this season, the most of any player in the NHL.

That solid play carried over to the second period, Winnipeg jumped on a bad clearing attempt by Shea Theodore. Mark Scheifele grabbed the puck at the Vegas blueline and send a cross-ice pass to Alex Iafallo, and he ripped a shot past Adin Hill for his ninth goal at 2:08.

Just under two minutes later, the Jets pushed their lead to three on a three on one, Gabriel Vilardi delivered a perfect pass to Cole Perfetti for the easy tap-in behind Adin Hill. Winnipeg scored three times on their first eight shots on goal.

“I thought, really after the first period, I thought we just closed down their rush game and their o-zone time. They're obviously a team that likes to make a lot of plays, and they're very talented in that area," said Perfetti.

"And I thought in the second and third period, we closed on them quick, didn't give them much, and they were still trying to make plays and I thought we found our offence from that, so we did a good job.”

FOUR GORDIE HOWE HAT TRICKS

Who do you think would have four Gordie Howe hat tricks (at least one goal, assist and fight) on this Jets team? If you said Mark Scheifele, you would be right. Scheifele recorded his 81^st career three-point game, and on top of that rushed to linemate Kyle Connor’s defence after Brett Howden hit Connor which led to the fight. A huge moment that showed the Jets standing up for one another in an emotional and important game.

"It is just kind of the way you get taught when you come into the league and that is the way you take care of each other," said Scheifele. 

"It is a brotherhood in here and especially KC, like I said, that is my boy and I don't like when he gets hit, plain and simple."

PK OK

The Jets have got some big kills in their last three games counting the two penalties they had to take care of in overtime in Pittsburgh and New York. Tonight, with the Jets holding onto a 3-1 third period lead, Winnipeg had to kill back-to-back penalties to Elias Salomonsson and Dylan Samberg. The Jets didn’t give up a lot and held Vegas from scoring with the man advantage; the Golden Knights came into the night with the fourth best power play in the league.