Jets Finish Trip With Dominating 7-2 Win in Chicago

The Winnipeg Jets began their most-recent three-game road trip with a 6-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn. Sunday night, they finished the trip with a record of 2-1-0 after a dominating 7-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago. Saku Maenalanen and Pierre-Luc Dubois each scored a pair of goals, Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists and Josh (Norris) Morrissey had three assists as the Jets started quickly, built 2-0, 3-1, 4-1 and 5-2 leads and played solid hockey until the very end to improve to 13-6-1 and take over sole possession of second place in the Central Division. The Jets are just a point behind first-place Dallas with two games in hand. The Jets opened the scoring at the 14:51 mark of the first period as Jansen Harkins took a sweet Adam Lowry pass from behind the Hawks net and banged the puck past Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek. Mike Eyssimont also drew an assist on the goal, the second of his NHL career. Leading 1-0 heading into the second period, the Jets used the second 20-minute frame to put on an offensive show. Maenalanen scored his first of the night at 2:55 banging home a rebound for his second of the year. Morgan Barron, back in the lineup after recovering from an injury, and Dominic Toninato drew the assists. Taylor Raddysh scored for the Hawks just 17 seconds later, but Kyle Connor fired a laser on the power play to make it 3-1 at 8:37. Josh Morrissey and Blake Wheeler were credited with the assists. Maenalanen scored his second of the night and third of the season at 9:52 as he drilled a wrister over Mrazek's glove, just under the bar, to make it 4-1. Dylan DeMelo and Morrissey got the assists. It was Morrissey's 18th assist of the season. Chicago made it 4-2 at 15:09 as Jujhar Khaira scored on the power play, but the Jets regained their three-goal advantage at 18:57 as Mark Scheifele ripped a bullet past Mrazek for his 11th goal of the season. Wheeler and Cole Perfetti were credited with the the assists as the Jets were cruising after 40 minutes. To their credit, the Jets kept pressing in the third and got a break for their hard work when a pass to the front of the net by Pierre-Luc Dubois was deflected into the back of the net by Chicago's Filip Roos (who was minus-three on the game). Kyle Connor was given an assist as the Jets led 6-2 with 15:33 to play. The Jets put the cherry on top of this sweet treat at 12:10 of the third period when Dubois tipped a Morrissey shot past Mrazek on the power play to make it 7-2. Granted, Chicago is not a very good hockey team, but the 2021-22 Jets could have fallen asleep at any point and let this one slip away. The 2022-23 under head coach Rick Bowness are a completely different animal. This team played hard from start to finish and embarrassed the Blackhawks before a full house at the United Centre. The Jets outshot Chicago 44-25, won 55 per cent of the face-offs and dominated every period. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck improved to 10-5-0-1 on the season, raised his save percentage to .928 and lowered his goals against average to 2.41. There were a number of great stats lines for the Jets. Dubois had two goals and was plus one with eight shots on goal in 18 minutes and one second of ice time. Connor had a goal, two assists and was plus one with two shots and a blocked shot in 18 minutes and six seconds of ice time. And Morrissey, who should be in any early-season conversation about the Norris Trophy, had three assists and was plus four with five shots on goal in 20:39. He's now tied for third in scoring among NHL D-men with four goals and 19 assists and was the first star in Sunday night's game. The stars were Morrissey, Connor and Dubois. All-in-all, it was a great way to end a three-game road trip and get ready for a four-game home-stand, a home-stand that begins Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Canada Life Centre against the Colorado Avalanche.