Connor, Gagner each has goal, assist in Jets win against Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Kyle Connor and Sam Gagner each had a goal and an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Saturday.

Pierre-Luc Dubois had three assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves for the Jets (20-9-1), who have won nine of their past 12 games.
Winnipeg played its first game since top-line forward Blake Wheeler (lower body) and defenseman Nate Schmidt (upper body) were injured in a 2-1 win against the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
"That's Winnipeg Jet-hockey," Connor said. "Next man up, everybody do their job. Great response from everybody. We needed help from everybody tonight, top to bottom. Like you saw on the score sheet, everybody contributed."
Bo Horvat scored, and Spencer Martin made 22 saves for the Canucks (13-14-3), who were missing leading scorer Elias Pettersson (illness) for the first time this season and got outshot 10-1 over the first 15 minutes.
"You take your best offensive player out and usually that's not a good thing on any team," Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But teams that are good enough can withstand injuries, and that's when other guys get the opportunity to show what they have."

The Canucks were coming off a 4-3 shootout win at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday, but failed to generate a shot on two first-period power plays.
"When you can go from great to whatever tonight was," Boudreau said, "you tried to build them up, told them how good they played in Calgary -- and we did an awful lot of good things -- and then we come here, and it's not even the same team. It's hard to understand sometimes."
Connor put the Jets ahead 1-0 on a power play at 2:51 of the first period, taking a cross-ice pass from Dubois off the rush and using Mark Scheifele as a screen to beat Martin from the left hash mark.
"It's kind of on the regroup on the power play, and if we can, we like to attack and try to create some chances off the rush," Connor said. "[Dubois] made a great pass, and I had a lot of time there and just picked low blocker."
Kyle Capobianco, who replaced Schmidt after being scratched for 13 straight games, made it 2-0 at 5:30 of the second period with his first goal of the season on a screened point shot after Dubois won an offensive zone face-off, and Neal Pionk made it 3-0 at 12:08 with a screened one-timer from the point.
"I love to see it," Hellebuyck said. "I love to see the guys succeed, especially with how hard they've been playing and how hard they've been working for me."
Gagner, moving up from the fourth line to the second line, extended the lead to 4-0 after converting a 2-on-1 pass from Dubois 56 seconds into the third period.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, who was a healthy scratch the previous two games, put Winnipeg ahead 5-0 at 7:59, scoring on a partial breakaway for his first goal in 20 games dating back to Oct. 27.
"We're not going to find any excuses," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "We're going to find solutions. When you say that you've got to have different guys stepping up and making major contributions, two goals from the [defense] and Axel's goal.
"That goal by [Gagner] early in the third period was huge, it gave us a little more momentum and gave us a little bit of a cushion."
Horvat scored on a power play tip at 14:36 for the 5-1 final. It was his team-leading 22nd goal and ended Hellebuyck's bid for an NHL-leading fourth shutout of the season.
"The best teams are the most consistent teams on a nightly basis, and tonight it just wasn't there for us," Horvat said. "It was night and day from our game in Calgary and that's unacceptable by us."
NOTES: The goal extended Connor's point streak to eight games (five goals, eight assists). ... Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey has nine assists during an eight-game point streak. ... Wheeler will miss at least four weeks after being hit in the midsection by a shot against Nashville and having a procedure Friday; Schmidt will miss 4-6 weeks. … Forward Karson Kuhlman was plus-1 with two shots in 16:32 of ice time in his Winnipeg debut after being claimed off waivers from the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday. … Canucks forward Brock Boeser missed his second straight game with an illness.