WINNIPEG – Patrik Laine recorded his third hat trick of his rookie season as the Winnipeg Jets ended their losing ways.
The Jets snapped their four game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at MTS Centre to conclude their four game homestand.
Laine scored three times in the victory, including the game winner and once into the empty net to give him 26 goals on the season, just one behind Auston Matthews for the rookie scoring lead.
“It’s always nice to score.” said Laine. “Yeah, it was a huge game for me and my linemates and the whole team, and these four last games haven’t been that good. So it was nice to have a game like this.”
It was the second time this season Laine scored a hat trick against the Stars.
“When you’re assessing Patty Laine and where he’s at, if he didn’t score the three goals, I could have still come out and said it was his best game of the season.” said head coach Paul Maurice. “All the other pieces to his game were NHL right on.”
Mark Scheifele had three assists in the victory while Joel Armia and Blake Wheeler scored the other goals for the Jets. They wasted a two goal second period lead but didn’t let it faze them.
“I liked our resolve there.” said Wheeler. “There wasn’t any panic. It was a good feeling in our room after the second period. Tie ball game with everything in front of us, a good opportunity to get a big win, so I thought we were pretty poised in that situation.”
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin found the goal for Dallas. The Stars now have just one win in their last nine games.
The Jets had allowed three or more goals in their last 15 straight games but Connor Hellebuyck only allowed two goals on 36 shots in the win.
“I’ve been playing the right way.” Hellebuyck said. “I found my game and I’m very comfortable in it and I’m just building confidence now.”
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For the most part it was a pretty uneventful first period. But with a little under five minutes remaining the Jets broke in on a 2-on-1. Andrew Copp slid the puck across to Laine who had the tap in behind Antti Niemi. Scheifele also drew an assist on Laine’s 24th goal of the season. The tally ended Laine’s drought of five consecutive games without a goal. The Jets took a one goal lead to the second period despite being outshot 12-6.
Early in the middle stanza, the puck came off the end boards to Nikolaj Ehlers who had a wide open net, but he shot it off the goal post, keeping the Stars down by only a single goal.
With 12:22 left in the second period, Shawn Matthias sent a backhand into the faceoff circle for Armia and he beat Niemi between his legs for just his fifth goal of the season. Paul Postma also had a helper and the Jets were ahead by two.
Less than a minute after the Jets extended their lead the Stars answered back. Jason Spezza spotted an open Jamie Benn and he buried the shot behind Hellebuyck. His 19th goal of the season was also assisted by Seguin and it was a 2-1 game.
The Stars scored the equalizer soon after on the man advantage. Seguin, from the blueline, beat a screened Hellebuyck right along the ice for his 21st of the campaign. Benn and John Klingberg registered the assists and it was 2-2 after 40 minutes of play. It was the first powerplay goal the Jets have surrendered in the last four games. The Stars once again led in the shot department with an 11-10 advantage in the middle period.
There were a number of great scoring opportunities in the final frame as both teams hit the crossbar and then with 5:07 remaining in regulation Scheifele won the faceoff in the Stars zone. The puck came to Laine at the hash marks and he ripped the shot past Niemi for the go ahead goal. His 25th of the season put the Jets up for good as Wheeler and Laine scored empty net goals in the 5-2 triumph.
Chris Thorburn and Julian Melchiori were healthy scratches for Winnipeg. The Jets were also without an injured Toby Enstrom who missed his first game since getting hurt against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
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