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The Winnipeg Jets continue to have the New Jersey Devils’ number, knocking them off 6-3 Tuesday night for their 17th win over the Devils in 22 meetings since 2013.
Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the first period. Both teams failed once on the power play as Winnipeg carried a 9-7 edge in shots on goal into the second period.
The Jets also lost forward Rasmus Kupari to injury in the first, putting them down to 10 forwards as they decided to skate with 11 forwards and seven defencemen in order to get Logan Stanley some game action.
Kyle Connor was the one to break the goose-egg 8:07 into the middle frame. Moments after Mark Scheifele hit the crossbar, Connor was denied from the slot by Akira Schmid but he tucked home the rebound for his 12th of the season.
Mason Appleton came close to doubling Winnipeg’s lead with just over seven minutes to go in the second when he blasted a wrist shot off the crossbar.
Not long after that happened, Tyler Toffoli was handed a cross-checking penalty and the Jets power play cashed in.
Cole Perfetti’s shot from the slot deflected off a Devils’ stick and fooled Schmid as it floated into the net at the 13:54 mark. It’s the fourth straight game in which Perfetti has scored and seventh in a row that he’s recorded at least a point.
The Jets couldn’t keep the slate clean much longer, though, as the Devils’ top-ranked power play got to work and cut the lead in half.
With Dylan DeMelo in the box for tripping, Timo Meier found space in the slot and one-timed a puck that ramped off Dylan Samberg’s stick and over Connor Hellebuyck’s shoulder to make it 2-1 with 5:06 to go in the period.
Just over a minute later, New Jersey tied the game. After Hellebuyck had some trouble handling a point shot from Luke Hughes, the puck trickled to the faceoff dot where Curtis Lazar put it on net. Hellebuyck turned that aside but was well outside of his crease when John Marino banged home that rebound to level the score.
Winnipeg answered back with 1:50 remaining in the middle frame when the Jets won the puck back to the point where Samberg slid a short pass to Perfetti, who then sent a great cross-seam pass to Nikolaj Ehlers for a tap-in to restore the Jets’ lead after 40 minutes.
The Jets carried a 21-17 edge in shots on goal into the third but the Devils tilted that counter as they pushed for the equalizer. New Jersey outshot Winnipeg 10-2 in the first eight minutes of the period before the Jets earned a power play to try and pad their lead.
Connor nearly did when his backhand from in close hit the bar and stayed out, but before the penalty was over, he made sure his team’s lead increased.
It seemed that the Devils would clear the puck before Jonas Siegenthaler blew a tire behind his net, allowing Alex Iafallo to take the puck and start a cycle. The puck would wind up with Schiefele along the half-wall, who sent a perfect backhand pass cross-ice for Connor to one-time past Schmid to make it 4-2 with 10:06 remaining.
The lead ballooned to three goals just over two minutes later. Vladislav Namestnikov drilled Kevin Bahl into the boards below the Devils’ goal line, grabbed the puck and fed Morgan Barron near the faceoff dot, who squeezed one through Schmid to make it 5-2.
The Devils got one back thanks to their scorching-hot power play. Dougie Hamilton clonked a blast off the post and the puck ricocheted to the stick of Dawson Mercer, who buried it into an open net to make it 5-3 with 5:43 to go.
But any hope of a comeback was thwarted when Ehlers scored an empty-netter with 90 seconds left.
It was a busy night for Ehlers, who also got in a fight with Brendan Smith early in the third.
With the win, the Jets improve to 8-5-2 on the season heading into Friday night’s Pride Night game against the Buffalo Sabres. The puck drops just after 7 p.m. with pregame coverage starting at 5 p.m. on 680 CJOB.
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