Jets outshine Stars in 8-2 victory

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This article was published 08/11/2016 (3248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets have expended vast amounts of energy chasing games early in 2016-17.

That scenario came to a sudden halt Tuesday night.

The Jets, who had trailed heading into the third period in 11 of their previous 13 games, made a firm commitment to try a new approach against the Dallas Stars, and the recently formed No. 1 trio of Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers spearheaded the attack.

Laine fired his second NHL hat trick (his ninth, 10th and 11th goals of the season) and added an assist, Scheifele added two goals and two assists, and Ehlers collected a pair of helpers as Winnipeg stormed to a 8-2 triumph at the MTS Centre.

“It’s always unbelievable to score and the feeling is always going to be the same when you score,” said Laine. “Yeah, I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of my team. We played a really good game today.”

Laine, who became the first NHL rookie since Alexei Yashin in 1993-94 to score 11 goals in his first 14 NHL regular-season games, is showing he can be a finisher of the highest order.

Laine now leads the NHL in goals and Scheifele, the NHL’s points leader with 18, is second with nine goals.

The 18-year-old Finn found various ways to beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen — deflecting Ben Chiarot’s point shot at 8:46 of the first period to give the Jets a 2-0 lead, potting his own rebound on the power play at 6:51 of the second to make it 3-1, and snapping Scheifele’s pass into the net less than four minutes later to push the lead to 4-1. The latter signalled the end for Lehtonen, who was replaced by Antti Niemi.

“I wanna go to the net and stay there,” said Laine, explaining his multifaceted repertoire. “A lot of the goals are (scored) around the net. I’ll try to be there as long as I can and try to score from there.”

Added Jets head coach Paul Maurice: “You can feel it in the crowd when he gets the puck from anywhere. You can feel the anticipation of the shot and everybody on our bench has that exact same anticipation.”

Winnipeg didn’t let up, getting another goal from Marko Dano before the end of the period. The Jets, outscored 21-5 in the second period prior to Tuesday, were riding high for a change.

Andrew Copp (a short-handed marker) and Adam Lowry added to the Jets’ total in the third.

Patrick Eaves and Tyler Seguin replied for the Stars, who fell to 4-6-3 overall. Winnipeg, which improved to 6-7-1, heads out on the road for games against the Arizona Coyotes and the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday and Friday, respectively, before returning for a Sunday afternoon game against the visiting Los Angeles Kings.

Power play energized

The Jets came into Tuesday scoreless in their 17 previous power-play chances over the last six games. Those problems seemed to evaporate in the middle frame with Laine, Dano and Scheifele finding the net. Winnipeg’s power play finished 3-for-5.

“Obviously, it’s pretty cool,” said Scheifele, enjoying his perch atop the NHL scoring list. “The boys have been playing good as of late and it’s been nice playing with Niky and Patty, so, hopefully, we can continue to generate like we have.”

Scheifele has a one-point lead on his World Cup linemate and Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid (who had three points Tuesday in Pittsburgh) and Artem Anisimov of the Chicago Blackhawks.

“Maybe I’ll give him a text and say ‘Tough bounce,’” joked Scheifele of McDavid. “It’s obviously pretty cool, but there’s a lot of season left and a lot of good players. Hopefully, I can stay in the mix.”

Stick with Hellebuyck  

Maurice gave goaltender Connor Hellebuyck his third consecutive start and the sophomore pro responded with a 28-save performance.

“It meant everything,” said Hellebuyck, who was pulled in a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers Sunday and was grateful for another start. “I preach a lot about the redemption game and I think I really owed it to myself and to my teammates to give it my best tonight… As a goaltender, you can really feed off your coach and a coach like Paul really knows what he’s doing.”

Help from the farm

Maurice praised the work of the callups — Dano, Nic Petan, Copp — giving credit to Manitoba Moose head coach Pascal Vincent for preparing them.

Petan chipped in with a pair of assists Tuesday.

“There’s a whole other band of development that’s important for our team,” said Maurice. “They are getting better. Pascal’s done a real nice job with the Moose keeping those guys on point.”

Trouba’s return?

With the return of a healthy Tyler Myers, the Jets should have a refurbished blue-line corps in place when they play the Coyotes Thursday.

Jacob Trouba skated with the Jets Tuesday morning and appears likely to play soon. He had been working out in Ann Arbor, Mich., skating with a college team and personal skills coach.

“I tried to do everything I could to stay in shape, stay ready,” said Trouba, a restricted free agent who ended a contract impasse by signing a two-year contract Monday. “There’s really no way to replicate an NHL training camp… Obviously, I think there’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment period to get used to the NHL game pace.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca        

Twitter: @sawa14