Kadri scores first of season, Leafs beat Jets

Build 3-0 lead on the road, improve record to 7-3 overall in game broadcast in U.S.

WINNIPEG — Nazem Kadri’s first goal of the season stood up as the winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 on Wednesday.

Kasperi Kapanen, Tyler Ennis and John Tavares also scored for the Maple Leafs (7-3-0), who host Winnipeg Saturday.

Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets (6-3-1).

Frederik Andersen stopped 38 shots for the win while Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves in defeat.

Winnipeg wrapped up its six-game homestand 4-1-1 and now hit the road with stops in Detroit Friday, Toronto Saturday and then a long haul across the Atlantic to Helsinki, Finland, for games Nov. 1-2 against the Florida Panthers.

The first period saw wild swings in momentum, but no scoring until Kapanen threaded one through a traffic jam in front of the Winnipeg net at 14:38. The Leafs outshot the Jets 18-14 in the opening 20 minutes.

Ennis made it 2-0 for the Leafs at 2:25 of the second period, when he redirected a point shot from Josh Leivo, then Kadri got a clean look and slipped a wrister past Hellebuyck’s glove to make it 3-0 at 11:43.

The Jets finally got on the board at 4:57 of the third period when Ehlers flipped one past Andersen from just in front of the Toronto net for his first of the season. Then Scheifele one-timed his shot from

the point at 6:28 on a power play to draw within one.

But Tavares won a duel in the crease with Winnipeg defenceman Dustin Byfuglien over a loose puck sent in from

Mitch Marner and slipped it over the goal line at 8:28 to extend Toronto’s lead to 4-2.

Notes: Wednesday’s game was the first NHL game with two Canadian teams carried in the United States by NBC.

TREVOR HAGAN THE CANADIAN PRESS Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stops Maple Leafs’ Connor Brown as he is trailed by Dmitry Kulikov during first-period action in Winnipeg on Wednesday. The Leafs won the game 4-2.