Total team effort powers Jets to road win over Canucks

VANCOUVER -When faced with adversity, the Winnipeg Jets answered back in a big way on Saturday night.
Already without Nikolaj Ehlers, Saku Maenalanen, Mason Appleton, and Logan Stanley due to injury, the Jets were dealt another blow in the morning with both Blake Wheeler and Nate Schmidt out four weeks, and 4-6 weeks, respectively.
Instead of finding excuses, the Jets found solutions, as they got contributions throughout the line-up in a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
"That's Winnipeg Jet hockey," said Kyle Connor. "That's what we've been talking about all year. Next man up. Everybody do their job. (That's a) great response from everybody. We needed help from everybody tonight, top to bottom."

Five different goal scorers paved the way to victory, as Kyle Connor, Kyle Capobianco, Neal Pionk, Sam Gagner, and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby all found the back of the net in the victory, which moved the Jets to 20-9-1 on the season.

It was a clinic from start to finish, as the Jets added to their lead, they also didn't allow much at their own end at all - save for a Bo Horvat power play goal with 5:24 remaining in regulation to spoil Connor Hellebuyck's shutout bid.
"It's always hard going through injuries but this is what you want out of your team," said Hellebuyck, who made 22 saves. "I thought we brought our pace and every single guy brought their A-game tonight. Our details were right, they were battling so hard and we were controlling the game."
An early power play offered the opening the Jets needed to get on the board first, as Kyle Connor took a backhand pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois in the slot and beat Spencer Martin on the stick side for his 13th of the season. Dubois and Josh Morrissey - who earned his 200th career point on the play - picked up assists on the tally, which came 2:51 into the first.
"It's kind of on the regroup on the power play, if we can, we like to attack and try to create some chances off the rush," Connor said. "And (Dubois) made a great pass and I had a lot of time there and just picked low blocker."
Morrissey's point streak sits at eight games, the longest run by a defenceman in franchise history.

It was part of a period that saw the Jets outshoot Vancouver 11-3.
"We didn't give them a scoring chance, so that was a big thing," said Bowness. "The gameplan was to go north. They're very good in the neutral zone with their 1-1-3. They stand up really good. You have to be able to make plays. So you keep chipping it in and you just make them go back, make them go 200 feet."
Another Jets defenceman built that lead to 2-0 just over five minutes into the second, when Capobianco blasted a point shot through traffic for his first goal of the season - and first with the Jets. Sam Gagner and Dubois teamed up to get the face-off win back to Capobianco, who was playing his first game since November 19.
So for Capobianco to contribute after not playing for a while, and Jonsson-Fjallby also chipping in later in the contest, the Jets got two goals from players stepping into the line-up due to the injuries, and they made the most of their opportunity.

"You're going to need it in this league," Connor said of depth scoring. "They're motivated, they want to make a difference and they can. You see it every night."
Neal Pionk kept the offence from the defence theme going, when his laser beam of a blast from the left point beat Martin clean high on the stick side with 7:52 remaining in the middle frame. It was Pionk's fifth of the campaign, a one-timer off a pass from his partner Brenden Dillon, with Cole Perfetti earning the secondary assist.
The Jets kept at it early in the third, and a pretty passing play resulted in Gagner making it 4-0 a little under a minute in. Connor gained the Vancouver zone and left a delicate backhand pass for Dubois, who attacked with speed through the left circle. He found Gagner across the ice, and Gagner's quick shot beat Martin high on the glove side for his fifth of the season.

To add more offensive contributions from the back end, Dylan Samberg's pass in the neutral zone sent Axel Jonsson-Fjallby in on a partial break and his wrister got past Martin with 12:01 left in regulation. Jonsson-Fjallby's second of the season made it 5-0, and Samberg's assist gave the Jets defence two goals and two assists on the night.
That goal gave the Jets defence two goals on the night and two assists. Even on the one goal that didn't have a defenceman on the scoresheet, one was involved. As DeMelo was the one to get the puck up ice to start the rush leading to Gagner's tally.

But on top of that, the Jets were stingy defensively. They allowed just six high-danger chances at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
"That's been a focal point for us from training camp. To give up less, play quicker, get the puck out of our zone and really start to stretch it out as wingers," said Connor. "I thought we had a lot of great support, it made our job that much easier in the D zone and when you spend more time in their zone, it's less time we have to defend,"
Horvat's goal was the only blemish on an otherwise clean sheet for the Jets.
"It was a one timer too, so it made me react just slightly different, which pulled me just a hair off and allowed a little bit of room for the deflection," said Hellebuyck.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Jets had earned their fifth consecutive road win. But aside from a few rounds of applause, there isn't much time to celebrate, as they go for their sixth straight win away from home Sunday night against Seattle.