Three things - Vilardi scores twice, Jets win streak at 8

WINNIPEG – Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardii combined for six points in a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders at Canada Life Centre. The Jets (39-14-3) extended their winning streak to eight games and moved back into first place in the league standings, two points up on Washington. Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves to record his league leading 34^th win of the season. Josh Morrissey (CAN), Kyle Connor (USA) and Connor Hellebuyck (USA) will represent their countries at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. The event is being held in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20. The Jets next game will be on February 22 when they host the St. Louis Blues.

MAGIC IAFALLO

For the second straight game, Alex Iafallo put together a brilliant individual play to help the Jets score their first goal. Tuesday against Carolina Iafallo skated through the Hurricane defence to set up Nino Niederreiter for a power play goal. Tonight, with the Jets trailing 1-0 in the first period, Iafallo took a pass from Dylan Samberg in the Winnipeg zone and went coast-to-coast, fighting off Bo Horvat inside the Islander blueline and lifted the puck over Ilya Sorokin for his eighth of the season.

HIGHLIGHT REEL SECOND PERIOD

Winnipeg scored three times in the second frame to take a 4-2 lead into the intermission. Trailing 2-1, Kyle Connor sent a pass to a streaking Gabe Vilardi and the 25-year-old tapped in his 23^rd of the season and hit 50-points for the first time in his career.

Just over 10 minutes later, Cole Perfetti sent a no-look pass from behind the net to Nikolaj Ehlers who had a wide-open net to score his 17^thof the campaign. It was also Ehlers 218^th career goal moving him past former linemate Bryan Little for fifth most in franchise history.

At 18:18, Mark Scheifele found Vilardi in the slot and he would wrist in his second of the night and 24^th of the season, that is a career high and he did it in just 56 games.

HELLE HOLDS THE FORT

The Jets kept the Islanders to just 16 shots through the first two periods, but New York pushed the pace in the final frame. Kyle Palmieri cut the Jets lead to one at 11:09 and then Connor Hellebuyck closed the door. During an Islander power play, the Vezina Trophy winner stopped eight shots and 18 of the 19 shots thrown his way in the third.

“Yeah, he made some big saves," said Islanders head coach Patrick Roy.

"He made a nice save on [Casey Cizikas] there on the doorstep and, I mean, he’s the goalie he is for a reason and his record shows that."