Laine scores 100th career goal, Ehlers nabs hat trick in Jets’ 6-5 win over Blackhawks

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This article was published 29/11/2018 (2473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It wasn’t one of his sizzling one-timers that leaves goalies feeling a breeze as the puck flies by them. Nor was it one of those wicked wristers that have netminders shaking their heads in disbelief.

No, history will show the 100th goal of Patrik Laine’s NHL career was rather pedestrian, at least by his lofty standards. He simply picked up a rebound in the slot and swept it past Corey Crawford just 103 seconds into Thursday’s game at Bell MTS Place. Ho-hum stuff, really.

But make no mistake: there’s nothing ordinary about Laine’s accomplishment, which came on a night his Winnipeg Jets managed to outlast the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 in an offensive slugfest. Winnipeg improves to 14-8-2 with the victory, while Chicago drops to 9-12-5.

Laine’s 20th of the season made him the fourth-youngest player to score 100 in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson and Brian Bellows, doing so at the ripe age of 20 years, 224 days.

“I knew (100) was going to come eventually. When you work hard you’re going to get it at some point. Good to get it out of the way and try to chase 200 now. It was a good win,” Laine said following the game, downplaying the milestone.

For good measure, Laine added career goal No. 101 early in the third period, giving him a two-goal cushion on top of the NHL scoring race with 21. It was his 18th goal in November — tying an NHL record for most in that month, and the most goals by any player in any month since Pavel Bure scored 19 in March 1994. It was also his 13th goal in the past six games.

“I guess I was just lucky this month. Let’s see how it goes in December,” said Laine. “It was a great month, especially for me. I think as a team we want more wins, and we want to play better hockey. At least I was kind of helping our team win with those goals. Just try to play better.”

Nikolaj Ehlers did his best to try and steal a bit of the spotlight from his buddy Thursday. Ehlers had a hat trick, going from five goals on the season to eight in one productive evening.

“You hope for it, you work for it. I feel like I’ve been playing some good hockey lately. It’s gotten better and better. My defensive game was not good today but I worked hard as I can to continue growing as a player. And today I got rewarded,” said Ehlers, who admits he got some inspiration from Laine’s success.

“It’s pretty exciting to see, so you want to do that, too,” he said. Linemates Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler each had three assists. Jacob Trouba had the other goal for Winnipeg.

The Jets were without the services of defenceman Dustin Byfuglien (concussion) and Joe Morrow (upper body), meaning Sami Niku and Cam Schilling both made their regular-season debuts after being summoned from the Manitoba Moose.

While the battered blue-line, which is also missing Dmitry Kulikov, wasn’t at their best Thursday, it was a case of bending but ultimately not breaking in a back-and-forth game with enough scoring chances to give coaches on both sides nausea and heartburn.

After Laine got Winnipeg off to the hot start, Marcus Kruger tied it up less than two minutes later. Back came the Jets, as Ehlers fired his first of the game just 49 seconds after Kruger. Chicago’s John Hayden tied it again just 8:10 into the game, and it was looking like the first team to 10 might win.

After things slowed down for a bit, Ehlers and Trouba struck just 45 seconds apart in the opening minutes of the second period. Jan Ruuta cut the deficit in half midway through the period as his seemingly harmless shot somehow eluded Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who has given up softies in recent games.

All eyes were once again on the Jets to see how they would handle a lead heading into the third period after blowing such advantages twice in their past three games.

Laine and Ehlers provided some much-needed breathing room as they both scored in the final frame. Laine’s came on a power play just 1:18 into the period, while Ehlers’ was on a breakaway dash midway through the period and proved to be the game-winner.

“He’s just one of those really dynamic guys and when he’s on his game he’s really tough to get a handle on. He darts in and out of holes, he’s proven he can be a pretty explosive goal scorer, so when he skates like that, he’s quick like that, you know, he’s incredibly dynamic. He makes a lot of really good things happen,” Wheeler said of Ehlers.

And Laine?

“I mean, the run he’s been on — 11 goals (last) week — obviously something I’ve never seen. You know, he’s the type of guy that you asked him why he hasn’t scored a goal in five games but you know something like that is right around the corner. What a blessing he is to have — tie game, down a goal, you’re never out of it with a shot like that,” said Wheeler.

Dominik Kahun brought the visitors a bit closer on a goal-mouth scramble with just under seven minutes left, and Artem Anisimov cut the deficit to one with just under three minutes to play. But Winnipeg managed to hang on, surviving a final-minute push from the Blackhawks with goalie Corey Crawford pulled.

“We don’t want to sit back. That’s not our game. It has never been our game so we gotta talk about it. We’ve done it too many times now and today, fortunately, it went our way but it’s something we’ve gotta talk about. I’m not concerned about it because we’re a good-enough team to change this. So we just gotta go out and do it,” Ehlers said of how his team plays while ahead.

These two teams will be tired of seeing each other by mid-December — this was the first of three meetings between Winnipeg and Chicago over the next 15 days.

The Jets now hit the road for three straight games in the New York area, beginning Saturday night in New Jersey.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg