Stanley scores for Jets in win against Islanders

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Logan Stanley scored for the first time in almost a year, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the New York Islanders 5-2 at UBS Arena on Monday.

The 27-year-old defenseman, who also had an assist, entered with five goals in 204 NHL games.

“When other guys can step up and chip in and be a part of that offense, that’s a good sign,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said.

Morgan Barron, Nino Niederreiter and Tanner Pearson also each had a goal and an assist for the Jets (2-1-1). Eric Comrie made 33 saves.

“I think we all know that we can play a little better on both ends of the rink,” Winnipeg forward Jonathan Toews said. “We’re finding our game. We’ve got some new guys in the room, myself included. We’re working on getting everyone on the same page and getting that 5-on-5 game clicking a bit more and things will start flowing our way.

“Sometimes, you’ve just got to find ways to win these ones.”

Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Emil Heineman scored for the Islanders, who went 0-for-5 on the power play and lost their third straight to start the season (0-3-0). Ilya Sorokin made 21 saves.

“Each game it’s been something different, whether it’s a guy behind you or a turnover on the blue line,” New York defenseman Scott Mayfield said. “You can point at guys getting beat out of the corner, stuff like that. Every time it’s different, but mistakes are going to happen too; it's part of the game.

“But [we’ve got to be better at] jumping right on it and making sure there aren’t multiple mistakes, as that never leads to nothing good. We just have to be a little more detailed and fix those [mistakes]. I think we did some good stuff, too, obviously, but it's time. We need to find a win.”

Barron gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 7:35 of the first period. After getting behind the defense, Cole Koepke found Barron, who beat Sorokin over the glove on the backhand.

Niederreiter made it 2-0 at 11:48 when Gustav Nyquist found him across the crease during a power play.

Pageau cut it to 2-1 at 2:05 of the second period, redirecting a point shot from Tony DeAngelo over Comrie’s blocker.

Stanley scored what proved to be the game-winner just 14 seconds later off the rush at 2:19 when his shot from the left face-off circle squeaked between Sorokin’s pads to make it 3-1.

It was Stanley’s first goal since Nov. 3, 2024; he scored once in 63 games last season.

“It’s tough,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “We get our momentum back a little bit, we pop one and finally break the seal after sticking with it through the hockey that we’ve been playing, and for them to respond right away, it takes [the wind out of our] sail.

“But not entirely; I thought we continued to stick with it. But overall, we’re shooting ourself in the foot too much.”

Pearson gave the Jets a 4-1 lead at 12:39. After Niederreiter held onto the puck on a breakaway coming out of the penalty box, he found Pearson in the slot for a tap-in.

Heineman answered at 14:45 when he one-timed Jonathan Drouin’s feed from the right circle to make it 4-2.

Mark Scheifele scored an empty-net goal at 17:35 of the third period for the 5-2 final.

New York outshot Winnipeg 11-5 in the third but failed to score.

“Comrie was outstanding,” Arniel said. “We needed him to be really good for about the first 10 minutes of that game. Man, they had some point-blank ones where he came up large. He kept us in that game. He kept the building a little quieter.”

NOTES: Toews got his first point since joining the Jets with an assist on Niederreiter's goal. ... Koepke, a forward, left the game at 16:46 of the first with a lower-body injury and did not return. “He got hit with that slapper,” Arniel said. “He’s just really, really sore. We’ll just go day to day here and see how his movement is, if it gets a bit looser as we move forward.” … Barron extended his point streak to three games (four points; two goals, two assists)... Islanders forward Casey Cizikas played his 900th NHL game to tie Bobby Nystrom for fifth in franchise history. Pageau played his 800th NHL game. … Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, had an assist and became the first defenseman in Islanders history to get a point in each of his first three games. … New York is 0-3-0 for just the second time in franchise history (2006-07).