WINNIPEG – Mark Scheifele laughed as he described how his Winnipeg Jets teammates tried to help him score a hat trick on Tuesday night.
Instead, the second-year centre scored a pair of goals and added an assist as the Jets halted the Buffalo Sabres’ four-game winning streak with a 5-1 victory.
“I know (Mathieu Perreault), I think every time he had the puck he was looking around, looking for me, so it was pretty funny,” Scheifele said. “But at the end, the boys wouldn’t even let me get off (the ice). I’d look over at the bench and they’re like, ‘stay, stay,’ so it was pretty cool.”
The goals were Scheifele’s fifth and sixth of the season. It was also his second career three-point game. He had a goal and two assists in last week’s 4-3 overtime loss to Colorado.
Michael Frolik and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist for Winnipeg (16-10-6), while Chris Thorburn also scored. Frolik’s goal was short-handed, while Kane scored on the power play.
Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec made 27 saves in his 300th career start as Winnipeg outshot the Sabres 36-28.
Buffalo (13-17-2), which got a power-play goal from defenceman Nikita Zadorov, was coming off a 5-4 shootout win at home over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
Michal Neuvirth stopped 31 shots in net for the Sabres.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Sabres captain Brian Gionta said. “We hurt ourselves tonight, whether it’s odd-man rushes or giveaways that lead to those chances (for the Jets). We hurt ourselves.
“Clearly, that’s what you want to limit. You give teams in this league that many chances, they’re going to make you pay.”
The win was the first for the Jets in their four-game homestand. They lost 4-1 to Anaheim on Saturday and will host Boston on Friday and Philadelphia on Sunday.
The Jets pulled out the victory on the same day head coach Paul Maurice announced at the morning skate that second-year defenceman Jacob Trouba is out until February with an undisclosed upper-body injury.
Maurice said it was a “pre-existing condition,” but wasn’t related to the neck injury Trouba suffered last season.
While Trouba went off the roster, defenceman Grant Clitsome went back on after missing five games with an upper-body injury and assisted on Scheifele’s first goal.
Winnipeg is still without defencemen Tobias Enstrom and Zach Bogosian, while forward Dustin Byfuglien has been moved back to the blue-line to help out.
Pavelec was impressed with the way the team is responding to those injuries.
“You have to battle through those injuries and we are able to do it so you’re really happy,” Pavelec said.
Sabres coach Ted Nolan was asked if his club looked tired midway through the game.
“Maybe not physically, but mentally,” Nolan said. “We just made a couple of crucial mistakes at bad times.
“I liked our first period, and then all of a sudden a couple of big mistakes and we had to play catch-up the rest of the game.”
Buffalo scored the only goal in the first period, but Winnipeg responded with three goals in under five minutes in the second to take a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.
The Sabres didn’t get their first shot on net until 10:32 into the game before having three power-play opportunities in the period.
Buffalo made good on a scoring chance with 44 seconds left in the period. With Winnipeg winger Blake Wheeler in the penalty box for slashing, Zadorov’s shot from the bottom of the circle got past Pavelec, who had Sabres winger Chris Stewart in front of him.
Scheifele’s first goal was scored at 9:31 as Zadorov left the penalty box for delay of game.
It was then Scheifele’s turn to go to the box for a questionable goaltender-interference penalty, but it didn’t prove costly.
Buffalo turned over the puck and 11 seconds later Jets defenceman Jim Slater made a pass across the front of the net to Frolik, who also sent a high shot past Neuvirth for his seventh goal of the season.
Perreault set up Scheifele’s second goal when he made a pass through Buffalo defenceman Tyson Strachan’s feet and Scheifele scored at 14:17 for a 3-1 lead. The assist extended Perreault’s point streak to five games, with one goal and four assists.
Winnipeg carried a power play into the third period from Andre Benoit’s slashing penalty and it led to Kane’s fifth goal of the season at 1:11, with Wheeler and Scheifele drawing assists.
Thorburn used a rebound from teammate Anthony Peluso’s shot to send a backhand shot past Neuvirth at 12:39.
Notes: Sabres centre Mikhail Grigorenko made his season debut. The 20-year-old Russian was Buffalo’s first pick (12th overall) in the 2012 NHL entry draft.
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