Jets blow by Predators, set up series vs. Knights

The Jets are headed to the first Western Conference finals in their short history after knocking off the NHL’s best team in the regular season.

Tyler Myers and Paul Stastny scored 2:06 apart in the first period, and the Jets stunned the host Predators 5-1 on Thursday night in their first Game 7 — continuing an amazing run for a team swept in its previous two playoff appearances.

Stastny finished with a second goal and an assist, and Mark Scheifele also had two goals. Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor each had two assists.

Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves for the Jets, who won three of four games in Nashville after missing the Presidents’ Trophy by three points to the Predators.

The Jets now host the Golden Knights in Game 1 on Saturday night in a conference final nobody could have predicted when this season started.

P.K. Subban scored for the Predators, now the ninth Presidents’ Trophy winner in 10 years not to win the Stanley Cup. Johnson. Alex Killorn. Nikita Kucherov. Andrei Vasilevskiy. All were part of the Lightning’s 2014-15 run to the Stanley Cup Final. Connolly wasn’t. Drafted sixth overall by the Lightning in the 2010 NHL entry draft, Connolly spent the first three and a half years of his career with the franchise before the organization traded him to the Bruins midseason in 2014-15, forcing him to watch the Lightning’s postseason run from afar.

“I think you want it to work out where you are drafted, but sometimes it doesn’t,” Connolly said of his time in Tampa. “I feel like I have gotten better as my career has gone on. I feel like I’ve had to find myself. I’ve had some tough years trying to find my game, and I’ve managed a way to stick with it and really do that the last couple years.”

Now, in the upcoming Eastern Conference finals, Connolly will face his former team.

“It’s good to know and compete against them and try to make it hard on them and be a difference maker,” Connolly said. “I can’t wait to get going. It is where it all started.”