VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The Winnipeg Jets are finding their stride following a nightmare start to the season.
Patrik Laine and Tyler Myers scored 3:13 apart late in the second period to help the Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Thursday night.
The Jets opened the schedule with an embarrassing 7-2 loss on home ice to the Toronto Maple Leafs before falling 6-3 in Calgary to the Flames.
Josh Morrissey and Nikolaj Ehlers, into an empty net, also scored. Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves, and Bryan Little had two assists.
“We played exactly the way we wanted to,” Myers said. “(It’s) a good start to creating a new habit of how we need to play to win.”
Daniel Sedin and Christopher Tanev scored for Vancouver, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 16 shots.
“It might have been our best game out of the three,” coach Travis Green said. “That’s a really good team over there. We did a lot of good things tonight. A lot of nights we probably win that game.”
Laine made it 2-1 with 4:29 left in the second. He took a feed from Little and fired a shot low to the glove side on Markstrom. The goalie was partially screened by Canucks defenseman Michael Del Zotto.
Winnipeg defenseman Dmitry Kulikov hit the post on the next shift, and Myers made it 3-1 with 1:16 remaining in the period when he finished off a short-handed 2-on-1 rush by ripping a shot past Markstrom’s ear.
Hellebuyck, who stopped 37 shots in the Jets’ 5-2 road victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night, got his blocker on Bo Horvat’s chance in front earlier in the power play to keep his team up by one.
NOTES: Canucks winger Brock Boeser, who scored four goals in nine games after signing at the end of last season, made his season debut after sitting out Vancouver’s first two games. … Sedin’s goal was the 188th of his career at Rogers Arena/GM Place, putting him alone in first place ahead of Markus Naslund (187).
UP NEXT
Jets: Host Carolina on Saturday night.
Canucks: Host Calgary on Saturday night.
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