1 week Ago By Allan Kreda, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor each scored twice, Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves, and the Winnipeg Jets won their seventh straight, 6-3 over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. Gabriel Vilardi and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for the Jets, who have now won 15 of their first 16 National Hockey League games. Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers, who dropped their second straight home game following last Thursday’s 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres .
Hellebuyck improved to 12-1-0 this season. Scheifele scored 57 seconds into the contest before Cuylle tied it at 13:07 of the first. Vilardi put the visitors ahead on the power play at 8:58 before Lafreniere tied the game again at 12:51 of the second.
Connor put the Jets ahead for good at 16:03 of the second. Scheifele scored again 1:08 into the third — his ninth of the season — before Kakko narrowed the deficit to 4-3 just 32 seconds later. Namestnikov scored his fifth at 13:08 and Connor completed the scoring into an empty net with 20 seconds to play.
Igor Shesterkin, who gave up five goals and was pulled at home in the loss to Buffalo, made 27 saves for the Rangers. TAKEAWAYS Winnipeg stayed perfect on the road with seven straight wins. KEY MOMENT Hellebuyck made a lunging save on Reilly Smith at 4:50 of the second and denied Chris Krieder point-blank on a power play later in the period.
KEY STATS Connor leads the Jets with 22 points. He is one of 11 Winnipeg players with 10 or more points. Rangers forward Artemi Panarin assisted on Lafreniere’s goal.
Panarin leads the Rangers with 22 points — including 10 goals — and has points in 13 of New York’s 14 games this season. UP NEXT Jets: Visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. Rangers: Host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
___ AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL Allan Kreda, The Associated Press.
