Jets shut out Golden Knights, tie franchise record with 52nd win

LAS VEGAS -- Eric Comrie made 26 saves for the Winnipeg Jets in a 4-0 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

It was Comrie’s second shutout of the season and fourth in the NHL.

“[Coach Scott Arniel] and the coaching staff has a lot of trust in me,” Comrie said. “’Arnie’ told me a couple days ago, ‘He doesn't care who's playing because we have full confidence in you.’ That gave me a lot of confidence in myself, and it just gave me a belief in myself to go out there and do what I have to do.”

Mark Scheifele, Adam Lowry, Colin Miller, and Cole Perfetti scored, and Nino Niederreiter had two assists for the Jets (52-20-4), who tied their franchise wins record, which they first set in 2017-18 and matched in 2023-24.

Winnipeg also maintained its four-point lead over the Dallas Stars for first in the Central Division. The Stars won 5-1 against the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

“The messaging from ‘Arnie’ is just about the process, taking care of that and the results will follow,” Lowry said. “We talked about coming in here against another red-hot team, another dangerous team off the rush, and a team that really makes it hard to get to the net. You got to be willing to get inside. You must be willing to win those races and win those battles. We did a good job listening to that message and getting to the heart of the ice, especially in the first half of the game.”

Adin Hill made 16 saves before being relieved by Akira Schmid to start the third period for the Golden Knights (45-22-8), who have lost consecutive games. Schmid made two saves in relief.

Vegas saw its lead in the Pacific Division drop to three points after the Los Angeles Kings’ 4-2 victory against the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.

“We had a really good stretch of hockey, and now we've lost two in a row,” Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said. “So, you can feel sorry for yourselves, or you can pick yourself off the mat and get back to work and put in your best effort on Saturday night. We're playing a desperate team (the Calgary Flames) that is still fighting and clawing to try and make the playoffs. So we have to be at our best, and hopefully, those games are the ones.”

Scheifele one-timed an Alex Iafallo cross-ice pass into an open next at 13:01 of the first period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.

Lowry made it 2-0 at 18:15 after Brayden McNabb blocked a Logan Stanley shot, which deflected off Niederreiter and onto Lowry’s stick. It was Lowry’s first goal in 11 games.

“A good shot by ‘Stan,’ great net-front battle by Nino, and I was just lucky that the puck was laying there,” Lowry said. “I was able to get it by him.”

Miller scored on a one-timer on the power play at 11:53 of the second period to push it to 3-0.

“I liked the fact that Colin pounded the puck there a few times from the top,” Arniel said. “They’re still a work in progress. This morning was our first time to really put the units together and get a look at it.”

Perfetti scored an empty-net goal 19:08 for the 4-0 final.

“We've got to get the part of our game in order. The style of play we need to play, to excel if we want to get to where we want to go,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It's that simple. So, tonight wasn't good enough. The players, if they haven't acknowledged it, they should. They're a very honest group. Self-analyze well. So, we've got to correct that.”

NOTES: Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers did not play the final 12:56 after taking a puck to the right leg. Arniel did not have an update. … Jets defenseman Luke Schenn returned after missing Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Kings with an undisclosed injury. He had an assist, three hits, three blocked shots and was plus-1 in 19:25 of ice time.