Staal scores twice, Hurricanes edge Jets to extend point streak to 5

WINNIPEG -- Jordan Staal scored twice for the Carolina Hurricanes, who hung on for a 4-3 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Friday.

“I thought the boys held (them) off, and our power play came up big with a big goal for us,” Staal said. “And it has been going for us, so that was huge for I think everyone. And then just staying strong in the third and [Brandon Bussi] kind of holding the fort.”

Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov also scored, and Bussi made 24 saves for the Hurricanes (14-5-2), who are 3-0-2 in their past five games and 7-1-2 in their past 10. Sebastian Aho and K'Andre Miller each had two assists.

“I liked the game. I thought we were good all night,” Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. “We had a couple of gaffes, one was a bad line change, one was obviously kind of a weird turnover that ends up in your net, but other than that I thought we were pretty solid all night and had a couple of big plays. Obviously, [Staal] keeps leading the way ... but overall, I thought it was a great effort from all 20 guys.”

Gabriel Vilardi scored two goals for the Jets (12-8-0), who had won two straight. Eric Comrie made 24 saves after it was announced earlier in the day that Connor Hellebuyck will have surgery on his knee and be out 4-6 weeks.

“[Comrie] made some big stops in the first there, and then on the penalty kill he had to make a couple of really big stops,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “It's not a situation where we ask him to stop 40. We need to play better in front of him. A couple of mistakes we made are things that we need to clean up for him. Whether it's him or whether it's [Hellebuyck], we can't give up those kind of opportunities. We gave up four goals. We're chasing the game. I just thought he was rock-solid and he's just his consistent self."

Staal scored 16 seconds into the first period to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. He received a cross-ice pass from Jordan Martinook and skated into the right circle, where he made an inside-outside move on defenseman Dylan Samberg before beating Comrie with a wrist shot that went in off the far post.

“That early (in a game), I've had maybe one or two,” Staal said. “I've already had one earlier this year (Staal scored 12 seconds into a 4-3 overtime win at the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 18). Yeah, we obviously want great starts and that's always nice.”

Josh Morrissey tied it 1-1 at 3:45. Mark Scheifele skated in on a 2-on-1 rush with Kyle Connor, but he passed back to Morrissey, who was the trailer on the rush and scored with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Vilardi scored on a power play to put the Jets in front 2-1 at 9:28. He blocked a dump attempt from Carolina defenseman Mike Reilly in the neutral zone, and the puck went right to Cole Perfetti, who skated in on a 2-on-0 rush before passing back to Vilardi for a one-timer in tight.

Staal tied it 2-2 with his second of the game at 3:08 of the second period. He redirected Jalen Chatfield's shot-pass from the right point while skating through the high slot.

“He could score every night because if you watch him, he gets opportunities every night like that,” Brind'Amour said. “He's always around it. The first one was a great goal. Normally you see him get more like the other one, which is the tip in front, or some sort of goal around the net. But he was obviously our best player tonight.”

Jarvis scored short-handed to give Carolina a 3-2 lead at 6:31. He got to a rebound in front after Comrie stopped Aho’s breakaway attempt.

"We obviously made two mistakes on the two goals, gave up a short-handed goal, a power-play goal,” Arniel said. “They're a pressure team, and for the most part there was some sloppiness near the end of the first, in the second a little bit, of not getting pucks out of our zone. ... We had opportunities to get back and tie that up, but if you give up a [short-handed goal] and a power-play goal, you're [usually] on the wrong end of things."

Svechnikov pushed the lead to 4-2 at 3:19 of the third period, scoring a power-play goal with a one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Nikolaj Ehlers.

“[Ehlers is] one of the best passers in this league. You’ve just kind of always have to expect it and get open, and he’ll always find you,” Svechnikov said. “We actually watched the video on that one and [Brind’Amour] told us the seam pass would be open there. But there’s a couple times where [Ehlers] was passing it to me and I wasn’t even expecting it. So, like I said, you’ve got to expect it always. He can pass (to) you from everywhere.”

Ehlers was playing his first game in Winnipeg since signing a six-year, $51 million contract with Carolina on July 3. Selected by the Jets with the No. 9 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Ehlers played his first 10 NHL seasons in Winnipeg.

“[Ehlers] was, I thought, really good tonight,” Brind'Amour said. “He made a lot of real subtle, high-end plays that created offense. We just, we didn’t cash in. And obviously on the one goal he did make a great pass.”

Vilardi scored his second of the game to cut it to 4-3 at 4:13. His intended pass for Connor on a 2-on-1 rush deflected five-hole off Chatfield’s skate.

Miller was then assessed a minor for high-sticking with 52 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Jets couldn't tie the game on the ensuing 6-on-4 advantage.

“I don’t know if it’s what [Carolina] did, I think it’s more about what we didn’t do,” Vilardi said. “I think we made a few too many mistakes at our blue line, at their blue line, just kind of feeding their transition.

“We worked. I think we had chances. We gave it our best, but we just couldn’t get the tying goal at the end.”

NOTES: Staal has scored four goals in his past four games. ... Morrissey extended his point streak to seven games (four goals, seven assists). ... Chatfield, who was activated off injured reserve earlier in the day, returned after missing seven games with an upper-body injury. He had one assist in 21:34 of ice time.