Secondary scoring, power play help Jets overwhelm Canucks in 5-1 win

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This article was published 11/12/2017 (2833 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He may not be playing much these days, relegated to fourth-line duty because a wealth of high-end talent is crowding things at the top. But Mathieu Perreault continues to make an impact regardless of how much ice time he gets.

Take Monday night as Exhibit A. Held to barely three minutes of action in the opening period — the lowest among all 18 Jets skaters at that point — Perreault still managed to end up being the difference-maker as Winnipeg beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 at Bell MTS Place.

Perreault scored the game-winning goal early in the second, set up an insurance tally a few minutes later and capped off his night with another goal in the final minute — the 100th of his NHL career — as the Jets snapped a three-game winless skid and improved to 18-8-5. And he did it while playing less than 12 minutes on the night, second-fewest on the team next to Matt Hendricks.

“That road trip wasn’t good for us, but we’ve already forgot about it. (Monday) we came out to play a solid game and we did that,” said Perreault.

Head coach Paul Maurice said following the game the usage of Perreault is both a non-issue and a good problem to have for his team right now.

“I’m not worried about Matty’s minutes. Like he’s going to get enough. He would be at his highest point-per-game production in his career, I would assume. He’s close to a point a game. And he’s able to play with some players that he can create some offence with. So I don’t spend a lot of time worried about those minutes. He’s been impactful and that’s what’s important,” said Maurice. “You can play maybe down a role or down minutes if you’re playing on a hot power-play unit. You can stay comfortable and confident, you’re putting up points, you feel like you’re earning your pay. And he’s gonna get out more times than not against players that probably aren’t used to playing against a player like Matty.”

Winnipeg was looking for a quick start Monday after last week’s rough ride through Detroit, Florida and Tampa, and they certainly got it as defenceman Dmitry Kulikov’s seemingly harmless wrist shot found its way through the pads of Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom just 1:28 into the game.

But the early goal didn’t appear to generate any momentum, as the Canucks carried the majority of play through the opening 20 minutes. Vancouver tied it up just more than five minutes later following some sloppy play by the Jets in their own end. Patrik Laine whiffed on two clearing attempts, and Nikolaj Ehlers made a costly giveaway the Canucks capitalized on.

Twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin cycled the puck, then dished it to rookie sensation Brock Boeser, who ripped home a shot from the slot for his team-leading 16th goal. The former University of North Dakota star is making the transition to the pro game look pretty easy these days.

Winnipeg was held to just four shots in the opening frame, including one in the final 13:04 of play.

“You come to the rink hopeful every day and optimistic, but those are the games you’re worried about, especially with that schedule, coming back off the east,” Maurice said of the start. His fears were compounded when captain Blake Wheeler was sick all day along, and other players showed symptoms as well.

“We had some guys with not a lot in the tank. So no part of our game was easy. What is difficult to do is what they did, they got better in the second period. We survived the first. There are times in the National Hockey League you need to survive, and we did that, and then got better and stronger,” said Maurice. “So I’m not necessarily keeping the video for structure or for things like that, but that’s a darn good NHL win.”

The second period was indeed a different story — thanks mainly to Perreault. After some good pressure on the power play, Joel Armia made a nice pass to Perreault, who buried the feed just as Sam Gagner was stepping out of the box.

Perreault showed no signs of slowing down after the goal. On his next shift, he picked the pocket of a Canucks defender and earned himself a partial breakaway that he couldn’t convert on.

With Vancouver in penalty trouble again a few minutes later, a patient Perreault set up blue-liner Tyler Myers for a booming slapper that was kicked out by Markstrom — right on to the stick of Ehlers, who converted the juicy rebound. It was yet another goal for the league’s fourth-best power play.

Andrew Copp and Adam Lowry set up the fourth goal midway through the third, showing off some nifty passing that ended with defenceman Josh Morrissey scoring on a three-on-one rush.

Perreault then iced the victory in the final minute of play, tipping in a Hendricks shot off a Markstrom giveaway.

“It’s definitely a good one. It’s kind of a reaction play. It was going in his empty net and I just got my stick on it. I could have tipped it out of the way, so lucky enough it went in,” Perreault said of the milestone goal. He got the puck from Hendricks as a souvenir.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 25 shots to improve to 16-3-4.

The Canucks (14-13-4) have dropped three straight games as they deal with injury issues. Bo Horvat, their second-leading scorer, and Sven Baertschi, their third-leading scorer, are out of the lineup. The Jets continue to enjoy home cooking, having won seven straight games at home and going 10-0-1 in their last 11.

“Coming home and playing in front of this crowd every night is pretty amazing. Seeing it now with three games away with three losses, we needed the extra energy and the crowd gave us a boost. We came with the right mindset in the second and third period and we’re pretty happy with that,” said Ehlers.

Winnipeg will now enjoy two days without a game for the first time in a month, as Monday wrapped up a gruelling stretch of 15 games in 28 days. They went 9-4-2 over that period.

The Jets return to action on Thursday night when they host the division-rival Chicago Blackhawks.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg