Because of their star gamers, the Winnipeg Jets gave their followers an early Christmas current Monday afternoon, downing the Maple Leafs 5-2 in Toronto.
Toronto was the higher crew for the majority of the opening interval earlier than the Jets earned the sport’s first energy play with slightly below 5 minutes to go within the first and their top-ranked unit cashed in.
Off a faceoff win, a Josh Morrissey level shot was tipped in entrance by Gabriel Vilardi, creating a giant rebound that ricocheted to Kyle Connor, who buried it previous Joseph Woll for his twentieth purpose of the season.
After a sluggish begin, Winnipeg wound up outshooting Toronto 11-8 within the opening 20 minutes and carried their 1-0 lead into the second, the place it didn’t take lengthy for them to broaden their lead.
Simply over a minute into the interval, Mark Scheifele blocked a shot close to the Winnipeg blue line and the puck caromed into the impartial zone. Scheifele tracked it down and skated it into the Leafs’ finish the place he waited patiently for a hard-charging Connor to drive the web. Scheifele then slid an ideal go that Connor steered into the purpose for his second of the afternoon, giving Winnipeg a 2-0 lead.
Not lengthy after, Max Domi instigated a battle with Alex Iafallo (the primary combating main of Iafallo’s profession), giving the Jets their second energy play look of the day.
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The Leafs had the very best scoring likelihood on the Winnipeg energy play when Mitch Marner blocked a shot and tried to skate away from Neal Pionk for a breakaway however as Marner tried to start a deke on Connor Hellebuyck, Pionk executed a textbook stick elevate to knock the puck away.
A double-minor excessive stick penalty to Mason Appleton on the 4:16 mark of the interval gave Toronto a great opportunity to get again into the sport, they usually took benefit because of their star gamers as an off-speed go from Marner fooled the Jets earlier than touchdown on the stick of John Tavares for a back-door tap-in.
The purpose got here in the course of the first leg of the double-minor, giving Toronto two extra minutes to attempt to draw degree on the ability play however the Jets killed it off to take care of the 2-1 lead.
With the Leafs nonetheless pushing to tie the sport late within the second, Haydn Fleury went down awkwardly and clutched at his knee. He very slowly obtained to the bench with some assist and needed to depart the sport, forcing the Jets to complete the sport with 5 blueliners.
On the 3:27 mark of the third, Winnipeg’s prime line obtained again to work. Gabriel Vilardi made an ideal play to knock down the puck within the Toronto finish and corral it earlier than sending an ideal back-door go that Scheifele redirected previous Woll to make it 3-1 together with his nineteenth of the 12 months.
With a contact below 11 minutes left, a delay of sport penalty despatched Toronto again to the ability play. Early within the man benefit look, the Jets obtained a shorthanded 2-on-1 however Iafallo was turned apart by Woll. Toronto wasn’t capable of parlay that into something although because the rating stayed 3-1, however not for lengthy as Winnipeg’s stars got here via once more.
With simply over eight minutes left within the third, Scheifele discovered himself alone in entrance of the Toronto internet and his preliminary strive was stopped by Woll however he saved digging away and the puck finally trickled over the purpose line to make it 4-1.
Tavares obtained the Leafs again inside two with 6:18 to go, burying a shot from the slot in transition for his second of the sport.
With simply over 2:30 to go, Woll went to the bench for an additional attacker however Toronto couldn’t generate a lot of a push via the Jets defence earlier than Scheifele discovered the empty internet with 21 seconds left to seal the win with a 3rd interval hat trick, the tenth of his profession and second of the season.
Hellebuyck turned apart 23 pictures to earn the win because the Jets enter the Christmas break in first place within the NHL with 51 factors.
They’ll return to motion Saturday once they host the Ottawa Senators.
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