Vilardi leads Jets with goal, assist in win over Rangers

Kyle Connor scored the shootout winner to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Adam Lowry and Gabriel Vilardi scored for the Jets who finished their three-game road trip with a 1-1-1 record and also tasted victory in their final matinee game of the regular season improving that record to 8-1-2. Eric Comrie made 27 saves and is now 12-9-1. The Jets return home to host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.

COMRIE CONTINUES HIS SOLID PLAY

Comrie’s performance since January 1 has been impressive and has now won a career best six straight starts while allowing no more than two goals during the win streak. In a game that the Jets absolutely had to have with the team getting one out of a possible four points to start the road trip, Comrie was steady throughout the day. He was solid in overtime when Winnipeg had to kill a penalty and maybe most importantly, he made the first stop on Vincent Trocheck to give his team some much needed momentum.

SHOOTOUT SUCCESS

The Jets were 1-4 in the shootout this season after their loss in Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon and Scott Arniel was trying something new going with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist against the Penguins. At MSG, Arniel went back to his star players Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi against rookie goaltender Dylan Garand who was making his NHL debut. Connor went first for the Jets and went five hole on Garand, after JT Miller missed, Vilardi finished things off firing a shot over the Rangers goaltender’s glove.  

“No, because we've been hitting some goalposts here too. Lately, obviously, it starts with [Comrie] making that first stop, and then Trocheck and then obviously KC, when you can get the opposition down one, it puts a little heat on them," said Scott Arniel.

"Yeah, I mean, young goaltender for them and I'm sure is, you know, he was pretty good and obviously it was different for the guys not knowing what to expect. Usually have a little bit of a read on goalies. So I just like the fact that two good (shooters), KC and Gabe, picked the corners nice.”

NICE CONTRIBUTION FROM VILARDI

Gabe Vilardi has been counted on heavily as of late and again he delivered for the Jets. In the first period, he was instrumental in helping Adam Lowry score his first goal since January 13. The Jets opened the scoring on a nice passing play with Cole Perfetti to Vilardi and he hit the captain for the easy tap in goal.

With the game tied at one in the second, the Jets were on the power play, Vilardi started at the point with the puck, sent it to the corner to Connor and went to the front of the net for the return pass, Vilardi’s one timer gave him 27 goals on the season. That tied his career high set last season. The 26-year-old wasn’t concerned about tying a career best after the game.

“I think it's just a matter that we're in a playoff push right now, and that's bigger than my personal goals and points and whatnot,” said Vilardi.

“So that's my job to produce. So I'm gonna keep trying to do that and keep trying to get set career highs every year.”