Jets score 4 straight goals, rally past Senators for 3rd win in row

WINNIPEG -- Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists, and the Winnipeg Jets scored four straight goals to come back to win 4-2 against the Ottawa Senators at Canada Life Centre on Saturday.

“That’s one of the things where this group has really grown over the last few years, is that as we get down two, we don’t panic, we don’t start cheating, we don’t start trying to do things that are away from sort of our structure,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “We kind of stick to what we do best, and our offense always comes from that.”

Ehlers’ one-touch pass set up Gabriel Vilardi’s go-ahead goal on the power play at 9:47 of the third period to give the Jets a 3-2 lead.

“Our power play, when we play it the right way and play it fast, get pucks to the net and get some chaos going, that's when we're at our best,” Ehlers said. “When we work it around slow, it's not very good. … I think with the skill that we have on both our power plays, things will open up once you get that chaos going.”

Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele each had a goal and an assist for the Jets (26-10-1), who have won three straight and have points in seven of eight (6-1-1). Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves.

“We didn’t try to chase it, I think that was the biggest thing,” Scheifele said. “When we got down 2-0, there was still lots of game left. Sometimes you can go and try to chase offense, but we just tried to stick to our game. We knew that if we did the right things over and over, good things would happen. It showed.”

Tim Stutzle, and Ridly Greig scored for the Senators (18-15-2), who lost a second game after winning six straight. Mads Sogaard made 19 saves.

“I thought we played really well,” Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot said. “Honestly, we were facing, what, the best team in the League? And obviously we made a few mistakes and they're probably most likely going to end up in the back of your net, unfortunately. So that's something we got to take away from this game and make sure that when we get to Minnesota tomorrow night, we make sure that we're better at that.”

Stutzle made it 1-0 Senators at 10:40 of the first period, scoring on the power play on a cross-slot setup by Drake Batherson.

“I think [Winnipeg] came out really hard, and obviously the power play got us going,” Stutzle said. “I think there's some stretches we maybe want back, but in the end, I think we just gotta keep playing the way we want to play, keep playing simple and I think good things will happen.”

Greig made it 2-0 when he tipped Chabot’s point shot on the power play at 4:03 of the second period.

“I thought in the first period we didn't give them any time to breathe out there [or] any chances to make plays,” Chabot said. “I thought in the second we got away from that a little bit, and they took advantage of it. They made some nice plays, they got some momentum, and their top players started feeling good.”

Connor cut it to 2-1 at 12:46 when Scheifele circled behind the net and found him for a quick shot from the high slot.

“We just tried to stay [with] what we were doing, get Ottawa to make a mistake, and they did,” Arniel said. “We capitalized, and once we got the first, the crowd got into it, it kind of changed our bench, which got going, and we had some guys who didn’t play a whole lot with all the power plays on both sides, so it really got us back into kind of rhythm and we got going, and it was a really solid second.”

Scheifele scored with a move to the backhand on a breakaway at 15:01, tying the game 2-2.

Just 1:32 after Vilardi’s go-ahead goal, Ehlers pushed it to 4-2 when he cut to the middle on the rush and scored with a wrist shot that beat Sogaard under his blocker at 11:19.

“They got a dangerous team that can score on the rush,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I thought we lost our forecheck a few times which allowed them to get some momentum off the rush, which all good players want. But anytime you go on the road and outshoot a team 35-23, you've done some good things. But that's a tough loss.”

NOTES: Connor has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) on a six-game point streak. … Claude Giroux’s assist on Greig’s goal is his 400th career power-play point. … Stutzle (12 goals, 28 assists in 34 games) became the first Senators player since Matt Duchene (35 games in 2018-19) to reach 40 points in 35 games or fewer in a season. … Scheifele has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past five games. His 10 goals in December tied with Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman for the most among all skaters. … The Jets had their third multigoal comeback win of the season. Only the Seattle Kraken (five) and Vegas Golden Knights (four) have more.