Connor propels Jets past Stars for seventh win in nine games

WINNIPEG -- Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists, and the Winnipeg Jets won for the seventh time in nine games, 5-1 against the Dallas Stars at Bell MTS Place on Tuesday.

Nikolaj Ehlers, Patrik Laine, Mark Scheifele, and Josh Morrissey each had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for Winnipeg (17-10-1), which won the opener of a home-and-home set with the Stars.
"I think the first 20 minutes] was real good. That was something we talked about before the game," Laine said. "That was kind of our mindset tonight, to play a solid first 20 and build off that. We were able to do that tonight."
***[WATCH: [All Stars vs. Jets highlights]*
Miro Heiskanen scored for Dallas (15-11-3), which has not won in four straight games (0-3-1). Anton Khudobin made 25 saves.
"That was our worst game of the year," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "We never responded throughout the game, and I apologized to [Khudobin] after the second for the effort in front of him.
"I thought the Jets were ready to go. I thought they were really good and better than us in every facet of the game."

Connor gave the Jets a 2-0 lead at 7:56 of the second period on a redirection of Morrissey's wrist shot from the point. It was Connor's 11th goal of the season.
Morrissey made it 3-0 at 11:12 on a shot that went off Mattias Janmark's skate and trickled past Khudobin, and Laine scored with 31 seconds left in the period when he was left alone in front to give Winnipeg a 4-1 lead.
"There was some physicality by the Scheifele line," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "The (Blake) Wheeler line has been incredibly consistent and fast with the puck, good sticks. Ehlers and (Jack) Roslovic now are involved in a bit of a physical point, not running guys but engaged physically in the battles for pucks. I've liked our defense for the most part for a long time; they just compete and battle and block shots, and when we couldn't, Connor was strong when we needed it."
Heiskanen scored the Stars' only goal at 17:59 of the second when he split the defense and put a wrist shot past Hellebuyck to make it 3-1.
Scheifele scored at 13:59 of the third period for the 5-1 final.
"[The Jets] were better in everything tonight," Heiskanen said. "I don't know. It was a bad game. [Khudobin] was great today, but everyone else was bad.
"I think we need a good rest right now and then go to the game and play our game; hard working and physical with a lot of shooting and traffic to the net."
Ehlers scored on a rebound of Neal Pionk's shot from the blue line to give the Jets a 1-0 lead at 7:45 of the first period. It was his 13th goal of the season.

They said it

"We've got to find that even-keel. Obviously, we don't want to get into that slump we had early on. I think we're four (games without a win, with one SO loss) in a row now or something like that, so obviously we want to get back home and we want to get out of this together. Looking forward to doing that." -- Stars center Tyler Seguin
"We get ourselves ready for every single game. We know what we need to do out there every single game and it doesn't change, so it's just a matter of doing it and we're doing it right now." -- Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers

Need to know

Dallas had three shots on goal in the first period. … Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was minus-4 in 14:57 of ice time. … Jets defenseman Luca Sbisa left the game late in the third period after taking a skate to the groin area. Maurice said he expects Sbisa to be OK but will be updated on his condition Wednesday. … Connor has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past nine games.

What's next

Stars: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Jets: At the Dallas Stars on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, TSN3, NHL.TV)