WINNIPEG – It’s almost 2022, but you’d never know it from the Winnipeg Jets’ 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night at the Canada Life Center.
The Jets celebrated captain Blake Wheeler’s 1,000th NHL game with a local offensive display that would have made Dale Hawerchuk and the rest of the Jets of the 1980s proud.
There were also enough penalties and punches thrown between the two sides to evoke memories of the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 32 shots at the Jets’ net for their ninth win of the season, while Joseph Woll took on 35 at the other end of the ice.
The Jets improved to 12-8-4 while the Leafs fell to 17-7-2.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Copp, Evgeny Svechnikov, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg.
Michael Bunting, Auston Matthews and Ondrej Kase responded for Toronto.
Wheeler helped put the Jets on the board first with a nifty power-play pass to Dubois, who was alone in front of the Leafs’ net. His deke beat Woll, the Leafs’ backup, at 4:05 to give the home team a 1-0 lead. It was his twelfth goal of the season.
Related Videos
Hellebuyck rescued his captain just minutes later when Wheeler was burned hanging in the center of the ice as the Jets switched, allowing John Tavares to skate alone. Hellebuyck pulled out his left notebook as the Leafs captain went backwards on a deke.
Dubois then took the dreaded offensive zone penalty when he tripped center David Kampf, sending the Leafs into the power game. Toronto didn’t do much for most of the men’s lead, but out of nowhere left winger Pierre Engvall found Bunting in the Jets’ slot and his wrist shot caught the string behind Hellebuyck at 16:08.
The Jets regained the lead within two minutes of the second period when defender Neil Pionk hit Copp with an extended pass and beat Woll on a partial breakaway.
The Jets doubled their lead to 3-1 just a few innings later when Dominic Toninato found Svechnikov at a two-on-one and his wrist shot beat Woll to the blocker. It was the Russian winger’s second goal of the season.
The Jets returned to power play a few minutes later. Connor put the Jets ahead 4-1 when his shot from the spot to the right beat Woll at 7:38 for his 15th of the season.
Wheeler, who has yet to score a goal all year but had two assists tonight, was sent only midway through the second period but failed to beat Woll. However, just seconds later, Ehlers converted Copp’s pass into his ninth of the season to give the Jets a 5-1 lead. It was Winnipeg’s fourth goal in less than nine minutes.
Wheeler’s slip penalty on Rasmus Sandin at 1:28 p.m. of the second period put the Jets down by two men and Matthews made him pay. His wrist shot from the top of the circle beat Hellebuyck just under the bar just 52 seconds later to make it 5-2.
The Leafs still had the power play, but they couldn’t capitalize, but it didn’t matter, as seconds after it expired, they got close to two. Kase came down the right side and squeezed a shot between Hellebuyck and his left post at 3:46 p.m. for his sixth of the season.
The Jets jumped the game thanks to another power play goal when Connor hit Scheifele on the Leafs’ blue line and split the defense and went five holes to Woll for the sixth of the year at 8:14 in the third period.
The Leafs were playing their second road game in as many nights, having lost to the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in a shootout Saturday. Toronto played its second game without sniper Mitch Marner, who collided with teammate Jake Muzzin in practice Friday.
The Jets honored Wheeler in a pregame ceremony with a silver stick and a video montage of his career, which began with the Boston Bruins in 2008 and brought him to Atlanta before moving with the Thrashers to Winnipeg in 2011. All Jets wore Wheeler jerseys during warm-up.
This Canadian Press report was first published on December 5, 2021.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca