The Winnipeg Jets extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre.
Mark Scheifele recorded his 500th career NHL assist, while Jonathan Toews potted his third goal in as many games, and Cole Perfetti extended his point streak another game.
The Jets got off to a rocky start, but recovered well as they pressed Ilya Sorokin and the Islanders by driving to the net. The Islanders wasted no time getting scoring chances of their own, and on multiple occasions throughout the first period, they got close on Connor Hellebuyck, but ultimately got turned aside.
For 4:20, the game was scoreless, but a drive on Sorokin by the Jets’ top line and Winnipeg got the socring parade started.
Kyle Connor pounced on a rebound from Mark Scheifele’s shot, and the Jets had the early 1-0 lead. Adding insult to injury, the Islanders ahd to hold their breath as 2025 first overall draft pick Matthew Schaefer was slow to get up after an inadvertent collision with Josh Morrissey.
Schaefer eventually returned about 10 minutes later, and he missed some great opportunities with the team to tie the game.
After a big penalty kill, the Jets didn’t take their foot off the gas and nearly added multiple insurance goals, but the Islanders’ franchise netminder, Ilya Sorokin, kept it a one-goal game.
The biggest chance for additional insurance came right after the Jets’ penalty kill as Cole Koepke flew up the ice on a breakaway, but ran out of room to make anything happen.
Heading into the second period, the Jets looked to keep the momentum going, but the Islanders weren’t going to make it easy.
That certainly was the case as the Islanders and the Jets had to crank it into overdrive, and neither team failed to deliver.
Both Ryan Pulock and Josh Morrissey made great plays to neutralize two-on-ones in their respective ends of the ice, but that was the last of the great defensive showing of the second frame.
Firing up the cannon of goals seen in the second period was Morrissey himself as he fires it from under the faceoff circle to add to the Jets’ lead. Cole Perfetti notched an assist on the play and extended his point streak.
“It means a lot, obviously. Every line is dangerous… You can see guys making plays and feeling more confident with the puck,” head coach Scott Arniel said about the Jets finding depth scoring now.
With a penalty on the ensuing draw, the Jets got to work on the power play. Not too long into the power play, Jonathan Toews scored his sixth of the season and his third in as many games to make it 3-0 Winnipeg.
However, just when it seemed like the Jets had momentum in their favour, the Islanders clawed back and showed they had life.
The Islanders, showing signs of life, scored three goals in 2:41 to make it an entirely new hockey game.
Breaking Hellebuyck’s shutout bid was Anthony Duclair as he got in close and fired a shot right through Hellebuyck’s high blocker side.
Moments later, Luke Schenn hooked Emil Heineman while he was on a breakaway, and it gave the Islanders a penalty shot and a massive chance to get back into the game.
Heineman buried the shot, even with boos raining down on him, and the Islanders were suddenly trailing by one goal instead of three.
Finally, the third goal absolutely sucked the life out of Canada Life Centre, and it was Kyle MacLean scoring his third right in front of Hellebuyck to tie things up.
“I obviously didn’t like that first goal, and we turned a couple [of pucks] over, and we still got back to what we had to do,” Scott Arniel said about the Islanders tying up the game in 2:41.
Rather than laying down and letting the game play out as it was headed, the Jets applied more pressure on the Islanders as if they still had a three-goal lead.
Finally, it was Dylan DeMelo with a nice shot from distance off Mark Scheifele’s nice feed.
Scheifele’s assist on DeMelo’s 4-3 goal was his 500th career NHL assist, and it gave the Jets some much-needed room to breathe after the Islanders hard press.
“It was a great play by Nino [Niederreiter] and Vlad [Namestnikov],” Mark Scheifele said when asked about the moments leading up to his 500th career NHL assist.
Islanders head coach, Patrick Roy, challenged the goal for potential goaltender interference, and it was a poor decision, the goal stood, and Scheifele had his 500th career assist in the end.
Fans in the arena were juked as it was shown earlier in the game that Scheifele had the assist on Toews’ power play goal, but he was visibly seen saying “it’s not my apple!” at the big screen.
“I thought I heard my name when they initially announced it, and I was like, did I touch it?” Mark Scheifele said about the intial announcement of his 500th career NHL assist.
“No, please, give it four seconds so they can change it, and I guess it was meant to be tonight, Scheifele added.
When it was shown in the arena, Scheifele eagerly stood up for the recognition and applause from the fans.
Minutes later, Jonathan Toews nearly had a second power-play goal that was overturned due to Scheifele batting the puck down with his hand. He knew it wasn’t a goal, and the game stayed put at 4-3.
The Jets weren’t able to capitalize on the power play, but they scored a late goal to add some flexibility.
Neal Pionk’s blast from the point was tipped in by Adam Lowry, and the Jets had a 5-3 heading into the third period.
Eight combined goals, seven of which counted, one on a penalty shot, and a coach’s challenge all in the same period. The second period was as wild as you’d imagine, and it shaped the third period to be even bigger than the first two.
While the score wasn’t as dramatically changing as the second period, some cause for concern came near the end of the game when Matthew Schaefer scored with 45.1 seconds left to play.
The Islanders continued to press and could’ve tied the game if they had been able to settle the puck down when chaos ensued behind Winnipeg’s net.
The Jets could’ve made it a 6-3 game, but Schaefer proved why he was worth the first overall pick as he suffocated Kyle Connor from getting any sort of shot off toward the Islanders empty net.
Winnipeg heads on the road to face the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. Puck drop for the Central Division rival clash is set for 7:00 pm CST.
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