WINNIPEG – Kyle Connor scored the sixth hat trick of his career as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-1 at Canada Life Centre. The Jets top line of Connor (3G, 1A), Mark Scheifele (1G, 1A) and Gabe Vilardi (3A) combined for nine points. Scheifele extended his personal point streak to six games and now has more goals (26) than he had the entire season in 2023-24. Nino Niederreiter (1G, 1A), Cole Perfetti (2A) and Neal Pionk also had multi point nights. Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for his league leading 27th win of the season, Winnipeg will host Seattle on Thursday night.
ALL KC IN THE FIRST
The Jets were looking to get off to another good start against one of the best road teams in the NHL and Kyle Connor made sure of that. Connor scored not once, not twice but three times in the opening frame in a 6:38 span that saw the Jets get out to a 3-0 lead.
Blake Wheeler’s hat trick against the Penguins in October of 2017 was in 4:20, Connor did it in 6:38. Sean Monahan has the franchise record for fastest natural hat trick, he scored three goals in Calgary also in the first period in a 5:17 span. Gabe Vilardi recorded the primary assist on all three of Connor’s goals.