Jets rally past Coyotes, take Western wild-card lead

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets rallied from two goals down to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 at Bell MTS Place on Monday.

The Jets moved one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Cody Eakin scored at 11:33 of the third period to make it 3-2 and complete the comeback for the Jets (36-28-6), who have won three straight and six in a row at home. It was Eakin's first goal since he was traded to the Jets from the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 21.
"That's a big game by us, being down two to start," Eakin said. "They're a hungry team. We ended up stopping the bleeding there and finishing it off the right way. … It's been a while so to chip in in that way, you're doing good work out there. It felt good."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Jets highlights]
Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves for Winnipeg.
"I thought I got it with my stick, but then it kind of bounced to my skate," Ehlers said of his kick pass to Eakin on the game-winning goal. "We've been able to create some good chemistry. But we still have some things we need to clean up. But it's nice to see that it's going the right way and we're making plays. It feels good."

Nick Schmaltz scored two goals for the Coyotes (33-29-8) who are 3-5-0 in their past eight games, and three points back of the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card from the West.
Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves for Arizona.
Schmaltz scored twice in the first period, making it 1-0 Coyotes at 15:50 and 2-0 at 19:58. Phil Kessel had an assist on each goal.
"They come hard here at home," Schmaltz said. "They have a lot of skilled players and we didn't close out enough guys. We gave them a little bit too much time and space, and when you do that against high-end players, they're going to make you pay. It's obviously a frustrating loss. Those are big points."
Ehlers cut Arizona's lead to 2-1 at 2:13 of the second period.
At 17:27 of the second period Tucker Poolman tied the game 2-2, scoring on the rebound from an Eakin shot.
"Your 2-0 lead, you've got to really make them earn their goals," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "And that's basically what it comes down to. We had our chances at the end, but a couple times we were over-passing again. I'm not quite sure, we had a couple of good shots. Keep ripping it. That's what good teams do."
Mark Scheifele scored into an empty net with 36 seconds remaining in the third period for the 4-2 final.

They said it

"We didn't talk a lot to each other on the ice and help each other out and if don't do that in this building, it's going to be a tough game. So, it was a tough game." -- Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson
"You look at [Ehlers'] goal there, it shows our team speed and just moving the puck north and a little simplicity there. [Ehlers] makes a great move on the breakaway. And it's another great play with [Eakin] getting kind of sprung. And [Poolman] going to the net. We knew the way we played in the second, if we continued, we were going to get a good result."-- Jets forward Adam Lowry

Need to know

The Jets have won three straight games six times this season. … Schmaltz had his first multi-goal game with the Coyotes and third of his career. … Winnipeg's six-game home winning streak is a season high. … Jets forward Adam Lowry returned after missing 20 games with an upper body injury; he had a team-high four hits in 10:39 of ice time.

What's next

Coyotes: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-A PLUS, SNP, NHL.TV)
Jets: At the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, NHL.TV)