Jets win battle of trending teams
WINNIPEG Blake Wheeler had a plan to spark the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday and it involved a familiar play.
The Jets captain looked for linemate Mark Scheifele. He found the centre at the front of the net and Scheifele fired in his 18th goal of the season to tie it 4-4 against the Edmonton Oilers at 9:58 of the third period.
In overtime, the sequence went Wheeler to Scheifele and then a pass to defenceman Josh Morrissey, who scored 41 seconds into the extra period to lift the Jets to a 5-4 victory.
“You know when I have the puck, I’m looking for him,” Wheeler said of Scheifele. “That’s the guy I want to pass to. We’ve had some success doing it, just continue to build off that.”
The Jets have won three straight, while Edmonton’s win streak ended at four games.
Morrissey fired a high shot past goalie Cam Talbot for his fourth goal of the season, which came just seconds after Oilers captain Connor McDavid hit the post next to Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck.
“I guess we kinda regrouped, came back again, we went the other way and kinda got them on an odd-man rush,” said Morrissey, who also had an assist. “Scheif and Wheels made the play to get it to me, and I just tried to make a good shot.”
Mathieu Perreault, Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik Laine, with his 22nd of the season following a six-game goal drought, also scored for Winnipeg. Wheeler, Scheifele, Dustin Byfuglien and Bryan Little each contributed a pair of assists. Byfuglien has one goal and five assists in a three-game point streak.
Ryan Spooner, Darnell Nurse, Jujhar Khaira and Alex Chiasson scored for Edmonton.
LIGHTNING 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1
TAMPA, Fla. — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 48 saves in his return from a broken left foot and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in a matchup of the NHL’s top two teams.
Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson both scored for Tampa Bay during the final 36 seconds of the second period to make it 4-1. Vasilevskiy, who missed the previous 14 games, stopped all 23 shots he faced in the period.
Anthony Cirelli and Nikita Kucherov also had goals for the Lightning (25-7-1), who have won eight in a row and lead Toronto by eight points in the Atlantic Division. The franchise record is a ninegame winning streak in 2016.
Toronto got a goal from Kasperi Kapanen, and Frederik Andersen stopped 17 shots. The Maple Leafs have lost three of four (1-2-1) after a five-game winning streak.
SABRES 3, COYOTES 1
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jeff Skinner scored his 22nd goal of the season as Buffalo defeated Arizona.
BLUE JACKETS 4, KINGS 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Artemi Panarin scored twice, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots and Columbus topped Los Angeles.
CANADIENS 6, HURRICANES 4
MONTREAL — Jeff Petry scored twice and Casey Price made 28 saves for his fourth consecutive victory as Montreal got past Carolina.
WILD 5, PANTHERS 1
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nino Niederreiter scored twice, Ryan Suter had three assists and Devan Dubnyk finished with 30 saves as Minnesota downed Florida.
Eric Staal, Zach Parise and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild, who were coming off a 7-1 win over Montreal on Tuesday. Niederreiter added an assist and has four goals in the last three games.
Denis Malgin scored his second goal of the season for the Panthers.
PREDATORS 4, CANUCKS 3, OT
NASHVILLE — Colton Sissons scored 3:05 into overtime to give the Nashville Predators a victory over the Vancouver Canucks.
Ryan Hartman, Nick Bonino and Calle Jarnkrok also scored and Pekka Rinne made 19 saves for the Predators, winners of two straight.
Jay Beagle, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat had the goals for the Canucks, who had won three in a row.