The Winnipeg Jets are the first NHL team to earn 15 wins in their first 16 games as their focused group continues to preach a “one game at a time” mantra.
Timely scoring and stellar goaltending rose to the forefront as the Jets defeated the New York Rangers 6-3 on Tuesday night. Winnipeg leads the league with a franchise-record 73 goals through 16 games.
“We know what we are doing but we don’t take too much stock in it. We just move on to the next one,” said Jets forward Kyle Connor. “It speaks to the leadership to not get too comfortable. There’s still a lot of season left.”
Connor and Mark Scheifele each scored twice Tuesday as the Jets also won their seventh consecutive road game. They are the last undefeated road team in the NHL.
The Jets have a Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender in Connor Hellebuyck, who is 12-1-0 this season with three shutouts. He recorded 33 saves against New York.
Winnipeg’s balanced attack also features 11 players with at least 10 points. Connor leads with 22 points, including 11 goals. Scheifele is next with 21 points, including nine goals.
The Jets started with eight straight wins under coach Scott Arniel, lost 6-4 to Toronto at home on Oct. 28 and have now reeled off seven more wins.
“You would never have drawn it up this way,” Arniel said about the Jets’ record. “We talked about it at the start of the season, banking points in a tough division in a tough Western Conference. Certainly the guys have earned every inch of it.”
Against the Rangers — last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners — the Jets also had three assists from former Ranger defenseman Neal Pionk and two assists from Nikolaj Ehlers and an insurance goal from another ex-Ranger Vladislav Namestnikov.
“We had some good back checks that turned to opportunities the other way, and we made them pay,” said Scheifele, who opened the scoring just 57 seconds in at Madison Square Garden, then added his second goal of the game at 1:08 of the third. “Playing with good players, going to the right spots and supporting each other well — good things will happen.”
Arniel, a former assistant coach with the Rangers when Alain Vigneault was behind New York’s bench, relished the opportunity to register another key victory against a difficult opponent as the Jets started a three-game trip against elite Eastern Conference opponents. The Jets visit the Tampa Bay Lightning and defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers later this week.
“This league is about pressure and when you’re good at it, you can make it hard on the opposition,” Arniel said. “The biggest thing for our group is we’ve done a great job with resets.”
Will Cuylle, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers, who dropped their second straight home game following last Thursday’s 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Igor Shesterkin, who gave up five goals and was pulled at home in the loss to Buffalo, made 27 saves for the Rangers.