Morrissey another weapon in Jets’ arsenal

Josh Morrissey didn’t allow a two-game absence affect his play on Sunday.

Morrissey returned from a lower-body injury to score the early winner and added two assists as the Winnipeg Jets routed the visiting Philadelphia Flyers 7-1.

“I woke up this morning, felt awesome, came to the rink and went through the routine and everything was good to go,” said Morrissey, who extended his pointscoring streak to three games.

Winnipeg weathered an early Philadelphia push as the Flyers outshot the Jets 10-1 through the opening seven minutes and 17-6 in the first period.

Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck helped thwart the early Flyers onslaught with 16 of his 36 total saves coming in the first period.

The win was Hellebuyck’s 13th of the season.

Winnipeg’s power play struck three times and seven different players found the net as the Jets improved to 10-4-2 on home ice.

Kyle Connor, Brandon Tanev, Dustin Byfuglien, Blake Wheeler, Tyler Myers and Bryan Little also scored for Winnipeg (18-9-2).

Mark Scheifele had an assist on all three of Winnipeg’s second-period goals, while Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine each recorded a pair of assists.

Jakub Voracek scored his eighth goal of the season for the Flyers (12-13-3).

“We were dominating in the first,” said Voracek. “Hellebuyck was standing on his head. He was playing pretty well. When they scored that third goal we kind of, I wouldn’t say (we) changed things a whole lot, but we just tried to make the plays that weren’t there.”

Philadelphia’s Michal Neuvirth, in just his second appearance of the season, allowed three goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Anthony Stolarz in the second period. Stolarz stopped 21 shots.

Morrissey ’s game-winner came on the power play less than three minutes after Connor opened the scoring for the Jets.

Winnipeg ’s first secondperiod goal chased Neuvirth from the game as Tanev jumped on a rebound for his fifth goal of the season.