Byfuglien has goal, two assists in Jets win against Canucks

WINNIPEG -- Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and two assists in his return to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Bell MTS Place on Thursday.

Byfuglien, who missed the past two games with an upper-body injury, assisted on Bryan Little's power-play goal from the slot at 4:58 of the third period that gave the Jets a 2-1 lead.
"It felt good to be back in the lineup with the guys," Byfuglien said. "I thought we put together a decent game. It's nice to be back and we got our two points. We just kept it simple, stuck to our game plan, we got pucks to the net and we just kept battling."
WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Jets highlights]
Blake Wheeler became the second player to score 500 points (173 goals, 327 assists) for the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers. Ilya Kovalchuk had 615 points from 2001-10.
Andrew Copp made it 3-1, scoring his first of the season at 12:46, and Byfuglien scored his first at 14:43 on a pass from Little to make it 4-1.
"I think we had that slow start and just got better and better throughout the game," Little said. "That third period, we had that hunger out there and it didn't stop. We kept pushing and that's why we got rewarded with more goals."

Patrik Laine also scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the Jets (4-2-1), who have alternated wins and losses to start the season.
"I felt like I did my job tonight," Hellebuyck said. "I was part of the team and they played so well in front of me, they made it pretty easy for me, and when they got their chances, they capitalized. It was an ideal game for us."
Bo Horvat scored for Vancouver (4-3-0), which had a three-game winning streak end. Anders Nilsson made 28 saves.

"I thought we played well, really well for the majority of the game," Horvat said. "Second period, I thought we were all over them, creating chances and, obviously, … to tie it up going into the third period, we were sitting pretty.
"Obviously scoring on that power play gave them momentum and it just snowballed from there."
Laine made it 1-0 on the power play at 18:56 of the first period with his third goal of the season, a one-timer that went high over Nilsson.
Horvat tied it 1-1 at 12:54 of the second period when he took a pass in the neutral zone, worked the puck around Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba and beat Hellebuyck short side for his fourth of the season.
"Everybody's trying to play to the best of their ability, but some nights aren't going to go the way you want," Canucks defenseman Troy Stetcher said.

They said it

"The team learned a few things. The way we need to play to have success, the consistency within our game. We have to have everyone going. We're not the kind of team that can just win on one line. We need to have our whole team going every night." -- Canucks coach Travis Green
"I liked our third and probably from the 10-minute mark of the first and the 10-minute mark of the second as well. Our third [had] the right amount of urgency and desperation in your game, enthusiasm, we were determined, right? Good decisions for the most part. Really good decisions when we tried to make something happen. We want to continue to do that. You've got to make plays in the third period to make things happen, put a lot more pucks deep, a lot more pucks to the net, and we kind of fed off that." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

Canucks forward Brock Boeser had a four-game point streak end. … Laine has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past three games.

What's next

Canucks:Host the Boston Bruins on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; SN1, CITY, NESN, NHL.TV)
Jets: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-A, NHL.TV)