Andrew Copp provided the tiebreaking score late in the second period and Mark Scheifele had two goals and an assist as the Winnipeg Jets overcame blowing a four-goal lead to cool off the visiting Montreal Canadiens with an 8-4 victory on Tuesday.
After Josh Anderson scored Montreal’s fourth straight goal at 4:08 of the second period — capping his first career hat trick — to tie the game at 4-4, Winnipeg eventually regained the form it had shown while scoring on four of its first six shots through the first 9:13 of the contest.
Moments after the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck (31 saves) easily stopped Rem Pitlick’s penalty shot, Copp scored on the power play with 2:43 remaining in the middle frame to give the hosts a 5-4 lead.
Third-period goals from Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Paul Stastny provided a cushion for Winnipeg, which went 3-for-6 on the power play to match its highest-scoring game of the season. The Jets won back-to-back contests for the first time since Feb. 16-17.
Dubois had a goal and two assists while teammates Stastny, Copp, Adam Lowry, Nate Schmidt and Evgeny Svechnikov each had a goal and an assist. Kyle Connor notched three assists while Blake Wheeler had two helpers.
Anderson’s special night and a goal from Artturi Lehkonen weren’t enough for the Canadiens, whose season-best winning streak ended at five games.
Just 5:21 into the game, Schmidt perfectly placed a cross-slot pass on the stick of Svechnikov, who pushed it past Montreal’s Sam Montembeault (16 saves). Schmidt’s drive from the near point 36 seconds later made it 2-0.
Following a Montreal turnover, the puck found Winnipeg’s Dylan DeMelo, who came out of the penalty box, then into a two-on-one with Lowry, who buried a backhander for a 3-0 edge. Just 27 seconds later, Scheifele converted a one-timer.
Montreal got on the board at 11:18 of the first when Anderson’s angled shot went through the legs of Hellebuyck. Anderson made it 4-2 when he pounced on a power-play rebound three minutes before the first intermission.
The Canadiens capped the wild first-period scoring with 1:32 to go when a streaking Lehkonen beat Hellebuyck for his third goal in two games.
Montreal’s Andrew Hammond stopped six of seven shots after replacing Montembeault at the 5:49 mark of the third period.
–Field Level Media
