WINNIPEG — Kyle Connor scored twice to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat Chicago 6-3 on Tuesday and hand the Blackhawks their eighth straight loss.
Mark Scheifele and Tyler Myers each had a goal and assist. Mathieu Perreault also scored and Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal for Winnipeg (19-9-2). Dustin Byfuglien contributed three assists.
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Laurent Brossoit, playing his eighth game (seventh start) for the Jets, made 32 saves.
Dylan Strome, Dominik Kahun and Alex DeBrincat scored for Chicago. Patrick Kane added a pair of assists.
Cam Ward stopped 28 shots for the Blackhawks (9-18-5), who also lost eight straight earlier this season but two were in overtime. The current slump is all in regulation time.
Winnipeg led 3-0 after the first period, but Chicago came back to make it 4-3 early in the third.
The Jets had mounted their 3-0 lead by 13:38 of the first period, while Chicago didn’t get its first shot on goal until 17:36 into the game, drawing sarcastic cheers from some fans.
Scheifele opened the scoring with a power-play goal when he redirected a Byfuglien point shot at 7:49 for his 17th goal of the season. Myers scored 72 seconds later.
Connors’ 12th of the season came after he took the puck most of the way down the ice, lost control of it in the slot, got his stick on it again and put a backhand shot past Ward’s glove for the 3-0 lead at 13:38.
Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Trevor Hagan)
The Jets outshot the Blackhawks 15-5 in the opening frame.
Connor scored his second goal of the game off a rebound on the power play at 1:44 of the second, but Strome got the visitors on the board 20 seconds later.
Duncan Keith picked up an assist. He and defenceman Brent Seabrook marked their 1,000th regular-season game together, the most by current NHL teammates and seventh all-time.
Kahun squeezed Winnipeg’s lead to 4-2 after he banged in a rebound at 7:09.
Ward make an arching glove save to thwart Connor’s hat-trick bid late in the second.
DeBrincat sent a sharp-angled shot between the post and Brossoit to make it 4-3 at 6:08 of the third, but Perreault scored on the power play off a rebound to regain the two-goal lead at 11:36.
Kane’s pair of assists extended his points streak to four games with two goals and four assists.
Tanev scored into the empty net with five seconds remaining.
Winnipeg ends its four-game homestand (2-1) Thursday against Edmonton. Chicago returns home to host Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the start of a four-game homestand.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
