Six different players scored and Stuart Skinner made 24 saves as the Winnipeg Jets routed the visiting Vancouver Canucks 6-2 on Thursday.
Dawson Mercer scored his first goal of the season as part of a two-point night, and Mark Scheifele finished with a goal and an assist for the Jets, who now have won two straight for the first time since winning three in a row from Oct. 4-7. Alex Iafallo, Cole Koepke, Neal Pionk and Mario Ferraro also scored as Winnipeg established a season high for goals in a game.
Kyle Connor and Dylan DeMelo finished with a pair of assists in the win.
Liam Ohgren and Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks, who have lost four in a row and are 1-13-1 in their last 15.
Leevi Merilainen stopped 23 of 29 shots for Vancouver, losing his third consecutive start.
After scoring five goals in the final 6:09 to snap a nine-game winless streak on Tuesday, the Jets did not keep their fans waiting nearly that long on Thursday. Iafallo put the home team ahead, deflecting Haydn Fleury’s shot through traffic for a power-play goal with 16:11 left in the opening period.
Vancouver has surrendered an NHL-high 22 power-play goals this season.
Just 14 seconds later, Koepke doubled the Jets’ lead with a tight-angled shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle.
Ohgren made it 2-1 less than three minutes later, beating Skinner from the top of the left circle, but Mercer restored the two-goal lead with 5:56 remaining in the period.
Skinner made the two-goal advantage stand up and won his second consecutive start, finishing with his highest save total in five appearances this season.
Winnipeg also won for the first time this season without a goal from either Connor or Cole Perfetti, the team’s two leading goal scorers. Perfetti recorded an assist.
Viggo Bjorck also earned his first career point in the win as the 18-year-old the Jets drafted eighth overall in June assisted on Scheifele’s one-hander that made it 5-1 midway through the second.
–Field Level Media
