Last night in Gotham City , the Winnipeg Jets came to town and left with a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

First period:

It took under a minute for the Jets to get on the scoreboard. Josh Morrissey pounced on a Rangers turnover in their own zone and got the puck to Mark Scheifele who put the puck top shelf on Igor Shesterkin from in close to give the Jets the 1-0 lead. The Rangers tied the game at 1 in the latter half of the period when Will Cuylle banged a rebound past Connor Hellebuyck. The period would finish with the game tied at 1.

Second period:

9 minutes into the second period, the Jets potent PP went to work and Gabe Vilardi knocked a puck down from mid air and converted a nifty give and go with Nikolaj Ehlers in front of Shesterkin to put the Jets up 2-1. Alexis Lafrenierre responded with a PP goal of his own 4 minutes later to knot the game at 2. Then, with just under 4 minutes left in the middle frame, Kyle Connor broke in on a 2 on 1 with Rasmus Kupari and fired the puck past Shesterkin to restore the Jets lead. The period would end with the Jets leading 3-2.

Third period:

The final period began just as the 1st period did with a Rangers turnover in their own end resulting in a Scheifele goal from in close to put the Jets up 4-2. Kaapo Kakko brought the Rangers to within 1 just 30 seconds later when he scored another rebound goal from in close past Hellebuyck to make the score 4-3.
With under 7 minutes left in the game, Vlad Namestnikov and Ehlers broke in on a 2 on 1 and although Ehlers shanked his shot wide, Namestnikov corralled the puck from behind the net and put the puck in on Shesterkin’s blind side to give the Jets a 5-3 lead. Connor would score an empty netter to make the final score 6-3 for the Jets.

Some takeaways from the game:

Against another strong opponent, the Jets looked really good in this game. Their record is now 15-1 to begin the year. If someone would’ve told me that in August, I would’ve thought I had a better chance of winning the lottery.

In a match up of perennial Vezina nominees, it was Hellebuyck that made a few more timely saves than Shesterkin, helping the Jets get the win.

Another game, another PP goal for the Jets. I feel like I can start copying and pasting that line. Since the team came back to Winnipeg in 2011, I don’t remember any other stretch where the PP was this potent.

The Jets top line scored 5 goals on the night. After going 5 games without a goal, Connor is now up to 11 on the year and 1 behind the league leaders at 12. He is still on that 50 goal pace. Hopefully he can stay healthy and sustain it.

The Jets road trip continues tomorrow night in Tampa. The Lightning will be well rested as they’ve been off for a week.

Thanks for reading. Go Jets Go!

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