Ehlers helps Jets past Hurricanes

WINNIPEG -- Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and an assist to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 2-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Bell MTS Place on Saturday.
Ehlers took a pass from Blake Wheeler in the slot and put a wrist shot past Scott Darling to break a 1-1 tie at 6:03 of the third period.
Ehlers has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past three games. Wheeler's assist was his fifth of the season.

Watch: All Hurricanes vs. Jets highlights
"It's going the right way," Ehlers said. "I'm feeling good. I feel comfortable out there and I'm using my speed as much as I can. I'm playing with two great players (Wheeler and Mark Scheifele). They're making it easy for me."
Bryan Little also scored for the Jets (3-2-0), who won their third straight game after beginning the season with back-to-back losses. Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves and is 3-0-0 this season with a 2.11 goals-against average and a .937 save percentage.
"I've been working all summer for this," Hellebuyck said. "You can look at my past, I've always had good teams and good players in front of me. I think it's the same here. You can see the guys blocking shots, working really hard, really grinding the other team down, keeping everything to the outside."
Jeff Skinner, playing in his 500th NHL game, scored for the Hurricanes (1-1-1), who played their first of four straight games on the road. Darling made 19 saves.

"Obviously not many people get to play in the NHL at all, and I think to play 500 and to play with one franchise is a pretty cool achievement," Skinner said. "It just shows that they've had some trust in me, and it's pretty cool."
Little made it 1-0 at 13:33 of the first period after Ehlers found Little in the slot for his first of the season.
"We weren't playing up to our standards," Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal said. "Maybe in the second period we started taking over a little bit and we still weren't skating the way we can and executing the way we can and creating offense the way we know we can."
Skinner tied the game 1-1 with his second of the season at 15:18 on the power play. Skinner took a pass from Noah Hanifin at the left circle, and his wrist shot beat Hellebuyck high on his blocker side.
"From where we were a week ago to where we are now, in terms of being able to handle that on the bench," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Everybody knew [we were] off, you could feel it at the morning skate with them dragging themselves around. We knew it was going to be that sort of game."

Goal of the game

Ehlers took the puck down low and dropped it for Wheeler, who continued circling in the Hurricanes zone. Ehlers moved out into the slot and Wheeler made a quick pass from the corner to find him for the game-winner.

Save of the game

Hellebuyck got his glove hand on a slap shot from Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin to preserve a 2-1 lead with 1:35 remaining in the third period and the Hurricanes net empty.

Highlight of the game

Darling stopped Wheeler in-close, then sprawled across his crease and got his glove on Schiefele's wrist shot to keep the game tied 1-1.

They said it

"There was a short little stretch there where we were good in the O-zone and we looked like we were starting to get a little quicker, but I didn't think we made very good decisions with the puck for the most part throughout the game and our execution with the puck left a little bit to be desired." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"We don't really care about win streaks. We want to win every game. If something goes wrong and we don't, we hit the reset button and we go back to work. That's what good teams do. They have short memories." -- Jets forward Mark Scheifele

Need to know

Jets forward Mathieu Perreault and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov left the game because of lower-body injuries in the third period and did not return. There were no updates after the game. … Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien played 24:14 after missing two games because of a lower-body injury. … Skinner has two goals in as many games.

What's next

Hurricanes: At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNOL, FS-CR,
NHL.TV
)
Jets: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-O,
NHL.TV
)