Toffoli, Brossoit help Jets soar past Ducks
WINNIPEG 6 ANAHEIM 0
WINNIPEG — Tyler Toffoli heard the fans roar and it pumped him up.
Toffoli scored his first two goals since being traded to the Winnipeg Jets and Laurent Brossoit made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season in a 6-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
“Definitely a special moment and, obviously, nice to get my first one here and, hopefully, keep rolling,” said Toffoli, who was playing his third game since the Jets acquired him from the New Jersey Devils on NHL trade deadline day.
Toffoli could feel he was in the groove — and his teammates, too.
“I should have had four or five there by the end of it,” said Toffoli, who’s up to 28 goals and 46 points in 64 games this season.
“You know what, it was one of those games I thought we played really well. It was just a matter of time before we started kind of piling some on.”
Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo snapped a 63-game goal drought and added an assist in front of Winnipeg’s fifth sellout crowd of 15,225 fans at Canada Life Centre.
Kyle Connor, Nate Schmidt and Mason Appleton also scored. Josh Morrissey chipped in with three assists and Nikolaj Ehlers had a pair of helpers for the Jets (42-19-5), who’ve gone win, loss, win, loss and win in their past five games.
The victory moved Winnipeg into a threeway tie with the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche for first place in the NHL Central Division.
Brossoit’s shutout was his fifth straight victory as a starter (12-4-2). He hasn’t given up a goal in 141 minutes and 40 seconds, dating back to last Friday’s 3-0 shutout of the Seattle Kraken and a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on March 3.
“It’s feeling pretty good and then, obviously, the team in front of me,” Brossoit said. “I’m going to try not to get too high on these because you know the opponents that I was playing in those two [shutouts].”
The Ducks (23-41-3), who lost 2-0 to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, have lost five consecutive games.
John Gibson stopped 32 shots for Anaheim, which has been outscored 27-5 during its losing skid.