Three things - Jets clinch playoff berth

WINNIPEG – Gabriel Vilardi scored his first career hat trick leading the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames and with the victory, clinched a playoff berth. Nikolaj Ehlers (1G, 1A) and Josh Morrissey (2A) had multi-point nights for the Jets (46-24-6) and Connor Hellebuyck finished with 31 saves. The Jets will play their next four games on the road beginning with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.

OFF TO THE DANCE

The Jets are making their sixth postseason appearance since 2017-18 thanks to the win tonight. Unlike last year when the team had to wait until the second to last game of the season, Winnipeg has six games left on their schedule to get prepared for the playoffs.

“It’s nice. We didn’t wait till the second last game of the season like last year. There was never any doubt in my mind that we’d make the playoffs this year,” said Rick Bowness.

“We’ve got a good team here. And we’ve got a good bunch of guys. So, there was never any doubt. It’s nice to put that behind us. And now we push forward.”

HAT TRICK VILARDI

Gabriel Vilardi has had a tough year with battling injuries but when he has been in the lineup he has made a difference. The 24-year-old recorded his first career hat trick and has really helped the power play since his return to the lineup. The Jets scored twice on the man advantage in four opportunities and have gone 3-for-10 in the last three games since Vilardi came back from an enlarged spleen.

“We had what, two power play goals? That’s good. Obviously, we got the five-minute there. I don’t think we scored on that one there, but whenever you get all these power play opportunities, you’ve got to bury,” said Vilardi.

“You have to have that killer instinct and make sure the other team pays for taking all the penalties, right? I think the power play looked good; we had some chances.”

FINDING CONSISTENCY

With a playoff berth 20 minutes away, the Jets buckled down in the third period and made sure that they took care of business. The game was up and down in the opening 40 minutes and Winnipeg really struggle in the second period and allowed the Flames to take over for a long stretch of time.

“I thought in the third, we kind of got to our structure our breakouts and execution of passing were a lot better and obviously getting up by a couple goals and they have to push so that was kind of the story of the third,” said Josh Morrissey.

“But I just thought we did a better job of executing and making cleaner plays.”