The Winnipeg Jets, owners of the highest point total (53) and the most wins (26) in the NHL, will host the struggling Nashville Predators on Monday.
Winners of three straight, the Jets trailed the visiting Ottawa Senators 2-0 early in the second period on Saturday night before scoring four straight goals en route to a 4-2 victory.
Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg’s leading goal-producers with 22 apiece, tied the contest in the second period and Gabriel Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers scored within a span of 1:32 in the middle of the third period. Vilardi’s winner came on the power play 9:47 into the third and was set up by a one-touch pass from Ehlers.
“Our power play, when we play it the right way and play it fast, get pucks to the net and get some chaos going, that’s when we’re at our best,” Ehlers said. “When we work it around slow, it’s not very good. … I think with the skill that we have on both our power plays, things will open up once you get that chaos going.”
Ehlers had two assists to go along with his goal while Scheifele and Connor each added an assist. Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for the Jets, who have points in seven of their last eight (6-1-1).
“We didn’t try to chase it, I think that was the biggest thing,” said Scheifele, who has 10 goals and eight assists in his last 12 games. “When we got down 2-0, there was still lots of game left. Sometimes you can go and try to chase offense, but we just tried to stick to our game. We knew that if we did the right things over and over, good things would happen. It showed.”
Connor leads Winnipeg with 49 points, while Scheifele is second with 44.
The Predators fell 7-4 to the St. Louis Blues on Friday night in St. Louis. Nashville was 3-0-1 in its previous four games before the loss.
“There were some opportunities there to win the hockey game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Unfortunately we did some things early in the game that was hard for us to come back and obviously taking a penalty there late, I thought we had good momentum. That one hurt.
“I didn’t like our mindset early in the game right from the first goal against. We didn’t do that the whole (previous) homestand. … We weren’t playing quite as direct as we have been playing.”
The Blues scored the first two goals of the game and led 4-2 after the opening period.
Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and Mark Jankowski and Nick Blankenburg also scored for the Predators. Juuse Saros gave up five goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Justus Annunen in the second period. Annunen made 12 saves.
“It was just too sloppy early,” Stamkos said. “I know it’s coming off (the Christmas break), but those are the games you want to be on the right side of, to build the momentum off of what we did before the break. I thought it was a missed opportunity, but … too sloppy with just giving them some chances with our own mistakes.”
