Connor scores twice for Jets in win against Devils

WINNIPEG -- Kyle Connor scored twice and had an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 6-3 win against the New Jersey Devils at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

Connor has scored seven goals during a four-game point streak. His 13 goals are tied with Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews for the NHL lead.

“There are just certain players around the League who you play with or play against who have that goal scoring knack,” Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “Obviously, it’s his skill, it’s his smarts, it’s his shot, it’s all of that. I’ve seen him score so many goals in games and more so in practice even, from impossible angles, from traffic. He does a great job of finding quiet areas in the [offensive] zone. … That real scoring knack is something that you can try to teach, but he just has it naturally. It’s fun to watch.”

Morrissey had four assists, Cole Perfetti scored for the fourth straight game and Nikolaj Ehlers also had two goals for the Jets (8-5-2), who have won four of their past five games. Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves.

“A lot of times this game is about putting it below the hash marks and then going to work, and we're a pretty good forechecking team,” Winnipeg associate coach Scott Arniel said. “We do a pretty good job of staying above people. And in our contact, when our first guy's there, the second guy gets there quick and there were some really good rewards from that forecheck and it's a big part of our game.”

Dawson Mercer, John Marino, and Timo Meier scored for the Devils (7-6-1) who have lost three straight in regulation and four of five. Akira Schmid made 25 saves.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “You look at the way we started the third period, we had two or three real good looks. We know Hellebuyck’s a [heck] of a goalie. He made a couple big saves there right off the bat, but we didn’t finish a couple of those opportunities.”

Connor gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 8:07 of the second period on his own rebound in the slot.

“I mean, when he’s going like he is, that puck just keeps on finding him,” Ehlers said. “His first goal, he shoots the puck, it comes right back out to him, he’s right there with that speed and is able to put it in. He’s a pretty important and good player for us.”

Perfetti made it 2-0 on a power play at 13:54, but Meier responded with a power-play goal of his own at 14:54 to cut it to 2-1.

Marino tied it 2-2 on a rebound at 16:06, but Ehlers gave the Jets a 3-2 lead at 18:10 after a feed from Perfetti.

”When we come back that time of the game with two huge goals with a couple of minutes left in the period, I mean, we get a long shift [but] we kind of shoot ourselves in the foot,” Devils forward Jesper Bratt said. "We have to address things. We’ve just got to start with man to man and realize it's not good enough. It's far away from the hockey we want to play for 60 minutes. We’ve got to manage time and we’ve got to manage the puck."

Connor scored again at 9:54 of the third period, one-timing a feed from Mark Scheifele on a power play to make it 4-2.

Morgan Barron gave Winnipeg a 5-2 lead at 11:58 with a shot from the edge of the right face-off circle after Vladislav Namestnikov won a puck battle behind the net.

Mercer cut it to 5-3 on the power play at 14:17, but Ehlers scored his second of the game at 18:30 for the 6-3 final.

Jets forward Rasmus Kupari left the game in the first period and did not return.

“He hurt his shoulder,” Arniel said “We’ll wait and see. He’ll get looked at a little more [Wednesday] and see where it’s at.”

NOTES: Connor also has four assists during his point streak. It was his 118th multipoint game, tying Bryan Little for fourth in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history behind Blake Wheeler (200), Scheifele (168), and Ilya Kovalchuk (155). … Scheifele has nine points (one goal, eight assists) on a four-game point streak. … Perfetti has nine points (four goals, five assists) on a seven-game point streak. … Winnipeg is 6-1-1 when scoring first and 6-0-1 when leading after the second period. … Jets defenseman Neal Pionk played his 400th NHL game. … Meier has scored in three straight games. … Marino has one goal and four assists on a five-game point streak.