It wasn’t all roses and sunshine but the Winnipeg Jets prevented their problems from snowballing with a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre. Alex Burmistrov went from dud to stud in the blink of an eye. The Jets withstood a Maple Leafs powerplay with Burmistrov sitting in the penalty box but he stepped onto the ice and scored the go ahead goal for Winnipeg with only two minutes remaining. The Jets bounced back from their worst loss of the season and now have two wins and a loss on their current four game road trip.
Burmistrov, Dustin Byfuglien, Mark Scheifele and Bryan Little scored the Jets goals while Toby Enstrom, Blake Wheeler and Mathieu Perreault all had two assists. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau and Leo Komarov notched goals for the Leafs. Ondrej Pavelec made 24 stops in the victory.
After getting dismantled by the Montreal Canadiens last time out the Jets responded with a quick start. Only three minutes into the game, Perreault from behind the net spotted Byfuglien and he squeezed it in short side on James Reimer. Enstrom also picked up an assist on Byfuglien’s third goal of the season.
After Burmistrov was sent off for holding the leafs took advantage on the powerplay. Tyler Bozak’s shot deflected right to Parenteau and he swept the puck past Pavelec to tie up the game at one apiece.
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Just 37 seconds later the Jets grabbed the lead right back. Enstrom’s shot was partially blocked and Scheifele fired the loose puck behind Reimer. Scheifele’s fifth goal of the season was assisted by Enstrom and Perreault and the Jets led 2-1. Toronto out shot Winnipeg 13-10 in the opening period.
After a three goal first, the scoring cooled off in the second with Komarov netting the only goal of the period. Roman Polak carried the puck into the Jets zone on a 3-on-2 and his centring pass was re-directed home by Komarov to tie the game at two.
With just two minutes left in regulation time Burmistrov stepped out of the penalty box straight into a 2-on-1. Burmistrov and Wheeler played a perfect give and go as Burmistrov slammed it home for his second of the campaign and the eventual game winning goal. Little had the other assist and then sealed the victory with the empty netter in the 4-2 win.
Byfuglien led the Jets with 21:06 of icetime. The Jets out shot the Leafs 30-26. Winnipeg was 0/2 on the powerplay.
Adam Pardy, Paul Postma and Patrice Cormier were all scratched. Cormier was called up from the Manitoba Moose earlier on Wednesday with Andrew Copp headed to injured reserve with an upper body injury.
The Jets close out their 4 game road trip with the second half of the back to back on Thursday against the Ottawa Senators.
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