Gaudreau hat trick helps Flames defeat Jets, end losing streak

WINNIPEG-- Johnny Gaudreau scored a hat trick, and the Calgary Flames ended a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Thursday.

Mark Jankowski scored a shorthanded goal for Calgary (23-12-3), which was 0-2-1 after going 8-1-0 in the previous nine. Sean Monahan had three assists, and David Rittich made 35 saves.
WATCH: [All Flames vs. Jets highlights]
"Obviously it's a good stepping stone for us," Gaudreau said. "Obviously a really good team. I think Ritter, Dave Rittich, played out of his mind tonight."

Adam Lowry scored for the Jets (24-11-2) in his return after missing two games with an upper-body injury. Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves.
"I think we had some good chances," Lowry said. "Maybe it wasn't the best third period, for sure, but [Rittich] made some huge saves.
"You've got to tip your cap, he played extremely well. The Flames, they did too. They had to travel today. You've got to give them credit, they came in and played a real solid road game."
Gaudreau scored at 1:04 of the second period to give the Flames a 1-0 lead. His cross-ice pass redirected off the stick of Jets forward Patrik Laine.

Lowry tied it 1-1 at 17:53 on a wrist shot from the slot after he intercepted a cross-ice pass from Flames forward Alan Quine.
Gaudreau scored 54 seconds later to put the Flames ahead 2-1.
"We're not going to fool ourselves and pretend we played a great game and their goalie stole it," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. "But [Rittich] played well. They capitalized on their looks and we didn't. But we've got another level."
Jankowski made it 3-1 at 15:39 of the third period. Gaudreau completed the hat trick into an empty net at 17:54 to make it 4-1.

"You know, after four days off it's kind of a weird feeling, but I think everyone did a great job," Rittich said.
Gaudreau said he was fine after leaving the game after he was slashed by Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien scoring the final goal.
"You know, it's part of hockey," Gaudreau said. "I mean, it won't be the last time I'm slashed. Just kind of surprised, I had a foot or two on him, so I didn't think I was going to get a stick to the arm, but I found the empty net, and that's the way it goes."

They said it

"Tough game to play. You take X amount of days off, and you fly in on game day, and then your goaltender's got to be really good, and ours was. It gave us a chance to build a game, get our feet underneath us, and made some big saves in the third, obviously, also. Big part of the win." -- Flames coach Bill Peters
"A bunch of chances to score a bunch of goals, their goalie was really good. But we were on the perimeter for the most part of the night in the offensive zone. I thought we especially lacked a little of that directness, we slowed down with the puck. We're looking for seams and we found it. We had lots of seams and lots of chances backdoor. But we took ourselves out of opportunities, different ways to score goals." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

Gaudreau's hat trick was his first of the season and his fourth in the NHL. His prior hat trick was Dec. 22, 2015, in a 4-1 win against the Jets. He has six points (four goals, two assists) in a three-game point streak; nine points (six goals, three assists) in his past five games; and 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists) in his past 19. ... The Flames have scored 10 shorthanded goals, one behind the Arizona Coyotes for the NHL lead.

What's next

Flames: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, NHL.TV)
Jets: Host the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-N, NHL.TV)