Three things - Highlight reel goal from Perfetti in Jets win

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets recorded their 51^st win of the season beating the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at Canada Life Centre. Kyle Connor, Mason Appleton and Cole Perfetti scored for the Jets who moved three points up on Washington for first overall and six points up on Dallas for first in the Central, the Stars have a game in hand. Connor Hellebuyck was outstanding again making 23 saves for his

KC KEEPS SCORING AGAINST CANUCKS

The last time the Canucks were in Winnipeg, Kyle Connor scored a natural hat trick in a 6:38 span in the first period to lead the Jets to a 6-1 win. With the Jets trailing 1-0 in the second period, Connor took a pass from Mark Scheifele in the neutral zone and fired a low shot past Thatcher Demko for his team leading 38^th goal of the season. He is now just two goals shy of becoming the second player in Jets/Thrashers history with multiple 40-goal seasons - he would join Ilya Kovalchuk (5).

APPLETON AND PERFETTI CLOSE IT OUT

The Jets patient game paid off in the third period as they took the lead for the first time at 6:24, Mason Appleton battled hard in front of Demko to fight off Quinn Hughes and tap in his second goal in as many games.

Just under six minutes later, Cole Perfetti brought the fans out of their seats when he stepped around Derek Forbort and wired a shot under the crossbar past Demko for his 16^th goal of the season. A goal that we will be seeing a lot of in the near future.

“A couple of good plays along the wall from KC and Vladdy and then just slashing across to try and push their D,” said Perfetti.

“Realized I had a little bit of extra time, and was just kind of trying to bait him, I was just waiting for him to turn his feet and was hoping he did. And then just it ended up working out nicely.”

HELLEBUYCK UP TO 43 WINS

The Jets goaltender continues to lead all statistical categories in the NHL, wins, goals against average, save percentage and shutouts and put up another solid performance. Hellebuyck made some key stops early in the first period and held the fort while the Jets were trying to get their insurance goal from Perfetti. He extended his home points streak to a franchise record 13 games. He also tied Andrei Vasilevskiy (12-0-1 from Dec. 28, 2024 – March 6) and Logan Thompson (9-0-4 from Nov. 29, 2024 – Feb. 9) for the second longest such run this season, behind only Darcy Kuemper (14-0-1 from Dec. 7, 2024 – March 25).