Laine scores twice to lift Jets past Stars

The Winnipeg Jets scored five goals in the second period to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-3 at American Airlines Arena on Saturday.
Patrik Laine scored twice, and Dustin Byfuglien had three assists for the Jets, who have won five of six games. Nikolaj Ehlers, Toby Enstrom and Mark Scheifele scored, and Michael Hutchinson made 33 saves for his second win of the season, first since Jan. 30.

Tyler Pitlick scored 10 seconds into the game, the fastest goal at home in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history, to make it 1-0.
WATCH: [All Jets vs. Stars highlights]
"I thought everything was great," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. "Sometimes the other team makes good plays, and that was the case of a guy putting one in a pretty good spot. You line up after that one and just try and get back to your game. It was early enough that we were able to put it behind us. Thought the rest of the period was really good, and obviously came out in the second with a lot of energy."
Winnipeg (37-16-9), which won 4-0 at the St. Louis Blues on Friday, is tied with the Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division, three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the Western Conference lead.
"Back-to-back games are never easy, but again, we played the way we needed to get the four points, and bounced back today," Ehlers said. "After that first goal, we showed some character. We're happy with the two games."
Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov scored for the Stars, who are 2-4-0 in their past six games. Kari Lehtonen was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 21 shots. Ben Bishop made five saves in relief.

"I think the first period was pretty even and then in the second period, I don't know, we just weren't ourselves," Radulov said. "We didn't play the way we should play and the way we have to play in front of our fans, and you see what happens."
Dallas (35-23-4), which holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, is one point behind the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central.
Pitlick beat Hutchinson with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle after Radek Faksa won a draw.
Ehlers tied it 1-1 with a slap shot from above the circles on the rush 49 seconds into the second period.
"At the start of the second with the power play, take a penalty and they get a 4-on-4 goal," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "They kept coming from there. They're a good team. We got to get on their level. We've got work to do."
Laine shot wide on a penalty shot at 2:46.
Enstrom made it 2-1 at 6:33, scoring on a wrist shot for his first goal in 88 games dating to Nov. 3, 2016.

Scheifele scored with a one-timer on the power play at 8:01 to make it 3-1.
Laine scored his 30th goal at 11:59 to give the Jets a 4-1 lead, and then made it 5-1 at 18:47.
"It just simply wasn't good enough," Stars defenseman Marc Methot said. "We weren't supporting each other properly in that second period, giving them a little too much time and space, and a good team like that will capitalize."
Seguin scored to cut the Winnipeg lead to 5-2 with 33 seconds left in the period. Radulov made it 5-3 with 47 seconds left in the third period.

Goal of the game

Scheifele's goal at 8:01 of the second period.

Saves of the game

Hutchinson stopping Devin Shore at 2:02 of the third period and Mattias Janmark at 2:03.

Highlight of the game

Laine's goal at 11:59 of the second period.

They said it

"We were in a position to take a big step, we didn't take it. We could have really taken a step today, the way we played in the first period. They made us pay for every mistake." -- Stars coach Ken Hitchcock
"What we were good at tonight was that we were on pucks and we knocked a lot of pucks down and countered back quickly. It's difficult to defend well on change of possession. Our forwards, especially, skated well and knocked a lot of pucks down and created some quick strikes." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

Laine has a five-game goal streak (six goals, three assists). He has 16 points (12 goals, four assists) in eight games against the Stars. ... Wheeler, who set up Scheifele's goal, has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) during an eight-game point streak. ... North Stars forward Roland Eriksson scored 12 seconds into a game against the Cleveland Barons on Oct. 20, 1977. ... Benn has five assists in the past seven games but has not scored in the past nine.

What's next

Jets:Host the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Stars: Host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, SNW, NHL.TV)