Jets hang on, defeat Coyotes for third straight win

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves and the Winnipeg Jets won their third in a row, 3-1 against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Tuesday.

Evgeny Svechnikov, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets (16-11-5), who won for the second time in three days after having five consecutive games postponed. They defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-4 in overtime on Sunday.
"We want to be a hard team to play against," coach Dave Lowry said. "We want to be a team that is physical. We'd like to be aggressive on pucks. We want to be a relentless team, and that's something we talk about."
Karel Vejmelka made 46 saves for the Coyotes (6-22-3), who lost their eighth in nine games (1-7-1). Shayne Gostisbehere scored in the third period to deny Hellebuyck his 26th NHL shutout.
"The first two periods were good, we had scoring chances, but I think in the third period we were too passive," Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. "We're waiting for offense to happen by itself. It was 2-1 and we made a strong push to tie it, but the goalie was pretty good."

Mark Scheifele had two assists for the Jets, who outshot the Coyotes 49-28 and have a 95-43 advantage in two games against them this season. The Coyotes won 1-0 with Vejmelka in goal Nov. 29 in Winnipeg despite being outshot 46-15.
"The NHL is a good League. It's hard to win," Lowry said "You look at the parity, anybody can beat anybody on a given night and there's not a lot of blowout scores. There's a lot of close games and, for us, we're only going to benefit by playing in these games."
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller said Vejmelka's play gave Arizona a chance to win.
"`Vejjy' played unbelievable tonight; he made like three-seam pass, one-timer saves," Keller said. "He was awesome tonight, it was just a tight game."
The Jets are 3-1-0 with Lowry as coach following Paul Maurice's resignation on Dec. 17.
"I think the guys are playing real hard for Dave, our systems are getting tighter and I think we're coming together as a team," Hellebuyck said. "We battled a little adversity and I think it's going our way now."

Svechnikov, who had not played since Dec. 17 because of an undisclosed injury, scored off Josh Morrissey's cross-ice pass with a snap shot that deflected off Vejmelka's stick for a 1-0 Winnipeg lead at 17:34 of the first. The Jets created the scoring chance by turning the puck over at the blue line.
"We were able to grab a loose puck, and when we do get opportunities as soon as we turn the puck over, we want our mindset to be that we want to go into attack mode," Lowry said.
Dubois scored his 15th goal of the season on a backhand shot to make it 2-0 at 14:40 of the second, just after a Winnipeg power play ended.
"`Dubs' is a big body, and when he makes his mind up that he wants to get to the net, he wants to bring a puck to the net, he's a hard guy to defend," Lowry said. "If he doesn't stay with it, they probably clear (the puck)."

Gostisbehere cut it to 2-1 at 6:41 of the third, intercepting a Logan Stanley pass before splitting two defenders to score on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Ehlers scored into an empty net at 19:15 for the 3-1 final.
"Obviously there were some mistakes, but they're a good hockey club and it was 2-1 there with five minutes left and we were in position to win in this game," Keller said.
NOTES:Arizona played its second game in 18 days and its first since an 8-7 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Dec. 28. … Jets forward Brenden Dillon had an assist on the empty-net goal and has five points (one goal, four assists) during a five-game point streak. … The Coyotes have been outscored 43-13 in the second period. … Hellebuyck is 7-3-0 in 11 games against Arizona.