Mark Scheifele made sure his milestone night would be a good one.
Playing in his 898th NHL game, setting a new franchise mark for games played, Scheifele tallied three helpers to propel the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets Tuesday night.
Scheifele came into the night tied with longtime teammate Blake Wheeler for the most games played in Jets/Thrashers history (Thomas Steen has the overall Winnipeg NHL record, playing 950 games with the original Jets).
After a failed power play in the opening minutes of the first period, the Jets, playing at home for the first time since Nov. 1, broke the ice thanks to some great 5-on-5 play by their third line.
Adam Lowry drove down low in the Columbus end and tried to center the puck but it deflected to the opposite corner. He tracked it down and sent it to the point for Neal Pionk before circling towards the slot.
Pionk then sent it back down low to Nino Niederreiter, who found a cutting Lowry for a point-blank chance that Lowry buried for his first goal of the season.
Winnipeg held onto the lead until late in the period when the Jackets drew level with 1:33 to go.
The play started innocuously with Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins handling a dump-in by banking it off the end boards to Damon Severson. He sent a pass to Miles Wood at the blue line that the speedy winger chipped up the ice before winning a footrace with Dylan DeMelo.
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Wood was hooked as he skated past DeMelo, which would have been a penalty or a penalty shot but Wood made it a moot point as he deked out Eric Comrie before sliding the puck through the five-hole.
Both teams managed to get 11 shots on net in the first but early in the second, the Jets restored their lead thanks to their big guns.
Mark Scheifele picked up the puck in the neutral zone and cut across the ice before taking it into the Columbus zone. He carried it to the faceoff dot before sliding a perfect pass through the crease and through the legs of Zach Werenski, right to the tape of the stick of Josh Morrissey who steered it into the net just 72 seconds into the middle frame.
The game’s second penalty also went to Columbus with 5:10 left in the second when Luca Del Bel Belluz was called for holding, his first career penalty in his 22nd NHL game, and Winnipeg made him pay.
With the Jets’ second power play unit on the ice, the puck was cycled around the Columbus zone before Gustav Nyquist sent a point-to-point pass to Neal Pionk that the blueliner blasted through Merzlikins for his first of the season.
Winnipeg outshot Columbus 8-4 in the second as they carried the multi-goal lead into the final frame and built on their advantage at the 2:45 mark of the third.
Kyle Connor made a juke at the blue line before taking the puck towards the corner in the Columbus end. As he reached the goal line, he noticed some daylight high in the net and beat Merzlikins with an acute-angle shot that caught the goalie off-guard.
The Jackets were able to cut the lead back to two just 79 seconds later. After the Jets failed to clear the puck, Charlie Coyle sent it across the ice to Cole Sillinger, who found Werenski in the slot. His shot eluded Comrie to make it 4-2.
But a little over two minutes later, the three-goal cushion was restored. Scheifele took the puck into the Columbus end before dropping the puck back to Logan Stanley for a one-timer that the big man pounded past Merzlikins for his third of the season, extending his career-high.
Winnipeg held on from there to improve to 12-7 on the season. Comrie turned aside 20 shots as he personally improved to 4-1.
The Jets will look to make it three wins in a row when they host the Carolina Hurricanes Friday night as Nikolaj Ehlers makes his return to Winnipeg.
