Byfuglien, Jets send Coyotes to fourth loss in row

WINNIPEG -- Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and an assist in his 800th NHL game to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Bell MTS Place on Tuesday.
"It's great," Byfuglien said. "I've done some good things around here to stick around to play 800. It's an honor, it's a pleasure, it's fun."

Byfuglien said he never envisioned playing this many NHL games.
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Jets highlights]
"Absolutely not. Nope," he said. "Every day I'm here to have fun and work and enjoy the time while I can."
Jack Roslovic, Nic Petan and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for the Jets (32-13-9), who moved into first place in the Central Division, two points ahead of the Nashville Predators. Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves. He is 10-2-3 in his past 15 starts.
The Jets are 3-0-1 through four games of their 10-game homestand, have points in eight straight (6-0-2) and 10 straight at home (9-0-1). The Jets became the second team to reach 20 home wins this season after the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Kevin Connauton, Christian Dvorak and Derek Stepan scored for the Coyotes (12-32-9), who have lost four straight. Antti Raanta made 19 saves in his return after missing two games because of an undisclosed injury sustained in a car accident Feb. 1.

"Early on in the game we weren't as sharp as we wanted to be but I liked how we responded and stuck with our structure and made a good push," Stepan said. "It's hard to come back from any deficit."
Roslovic gave the Jets a 1-0 lead 30 seconds into the first period. Toby Enstrom's pass found Roslovic's stick at the right circle and he put his wrist shot under the crossbar.
"It's good to set the tone that way, it's good for the team," Roslovic said. "It was good to get one early in the game."
Connauton tied the game 1-1 at 4:25, scoring on a shot from the point that trickled under the pads of Hellebuyck.
Byfuglien made it 2-1 at 7:56, batting a puck out of the air and past Raanta.

"I swing at a lot of pucks and miss most of them," Byfuglien said. "But that one I got."
Petan made it 3-1 at 14:28, redirecting Ben Chiarot's point shot past Raanta.
Dvorak pulled the Coyotes back to 3-2, scoring on the power play at 17:07.

Kulikov made it 4-2 on a slap shot at 2:16 of the second period.
"There's no easy games at this point in the season and you're going to have to work for every goal," Kulikov said. "They pushed back. They were close to scoring a goal and tying the game up. The message is we play 60 minutes every game."
Stepan cut the lead to 4-3, deflecting Alex Goligoski's point shot behind Hellebuyck 55 seconds into the third period.
"I liked our battle last half of the game," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "I thought we played really well. We worked hard, had some chances to score, a couple guys had chances to score and missed the net. I think they had 23 shots and four goals and those were top-shelf goals. That was the difference."

Goal of the game

Kulikov's goal at 2:16 of the second period.

Save of the game

Hellebuyck's save on Dvorak with 1:45 remaining in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Roslovic's goal 30 seconds into the first period.

They said it

"We got 29 [games] to go here. If we go out and play like we did tonight and play with the effort we did tonight, four lines, six [defensemen] and two goaltenders, it's going to make a real good learning and real good process for us to develop our team and understand what it takes." -- Coyotes forward Derek Stepan
"I would agree this won't make the season ticket package. We're not sending that video out. But sometimes those are the most important wins because you learn how to grind them out. We've been pretty good against the teams that have struggled a little bit, we haven't taken anybody lightly. And we've racked up points." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

Connauton has two goals in his past three games. … Jets forward Blake Wheeler has not scored in his past 12 games but has nine assists.

What's next

Coyotes: At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-A, NHL.TV)
Jets:Host the St. Louis Blues on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-MW, NHL.TV)