Stringing together wins hasn’t been easy for the Winnipeg Jets in 2025, but you sure wouldn’t know it seeing how they shredded the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night.
Kyle Connor netted a natural hat trick in the first period as the Jets blasted the Canucks 6-1 at the Canada Life Centre. It’s the first time Winnipeg has secured two wins in a row since a four-game win streak in late December.
Connor also had an assist for a four-point night as the Jets became the first team in the league to 30 wins.
“The bounces just seem to be going the right way, especially early,” said Connor. “We’ve had those nights where, you know the other night, we’re hitting posts and they’re not going your way. So, just one of those nights where (I’m) able to bury a couple.”
It was Connor’s sixth career hat trick and his first of the season. Connor’s three goals in the first 13:37 of the game is the second-fastest hat trick to start a game in franchise history and the three goals he scored in the span of just 6:38 is third-fastest in Jets 2.0 history.
It’s the tenth time this season the Jets have scored six or more goals which is tied for best in the NHL. The Jets struck for three goals in the opening stanza alone.
“We had talked, I think, a couple weeks ago about our starts,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “And we’ve been getting a lot better at it, getting kinda out of the gate. I thought we did that tonight as a group.
“Just like a lot of what we did in that first period. Kinda got off to playing our game right away and certainly was the difference.”
The Jets had 20 shots in the second frame which is a new season-high for a period.
Cole Perfetti recorded a pair of assists for his 100th career point as his line with Rasmus Kupari and Nino Niederreiter scored twice in the victory.
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“I thought they were really good, I really did,” Arniel said. “I thought they were good. I liked a lot of how Koop uses his speed, but then Nino uses his size. Fetts used his hockey IQ and vision, and it was a good chemistry there.”
Gabriel Vilardi recorded three assists, while Mark Scheifele scored once and added a helper to extend his point-streak to six games.
The Jets got on the board just under seven minutes into the game thanks to a blunder by Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen.
After Winnipeg dumped the puck into the Vancouver end, Lankinen wandered behind his net to retrieve it but under some pressure from he tried to steer it to the corner. Unfortunately for the Canucks, Vilardi was waiting in the corner to pick it off and send the puck in front to a wide open Connor for his 24th of the season.
He was just getting started.
Later in the first, Connor caught a hard clearing attempt from Dylan Samberg with his hand at the Winnipeg blue line, dropped it and sent it over to Vilardi streaking up the ice. He crossed the Vancouver blue line and dropped it off to Neal Pionk who fired a shot on net. Lankinen stopped it but the rebound eluded the Canucks in front of the goal as Connor found it, put a deke on Lankinen and tucked it in for his second of the night at the 13:01 mark.
36 seconds later the hats came pouring onto the ice.
On the very same shift, the Jets’ top line transitioned the puck out of their own end and as they did so, Connor snuck behind the Canucks’ defenders as Vilardi hit him with a breakaway pass. Connor then put a nasty move on Lankinen before depositing his third of the night.
It was the third time in franchise history that a player had scored three goals in the first period and in doing so in 13:37, Connor scored the second-quickest hat-trick from the opening puck drop in franchise history (Sean Monahan scored three goals in the first 11:24 on Feb. 19, 2024).
Vilardi’s three assists in the period brought his season point total to 41, matching his career-high that he set in 63 games with the Los Angeles Kings in 2022-23.
Shots after one period were 8-6 in Winnipeg’s favour and less than a minute into the second, shot number nine made it 4-0.
Quinn Hughes was late getting to a dump-in behind his net as it rolled past him and into the near corner where Perfetti collected it. He sent the puck back to the point where Pionk one-timed it and beat Lankinen clean 39 seconds into the period.
Winnipeg had two power play opportunities in the period to try and add to their lead or to get Connor another goal, but they were not able to convert.
No matter, they would just score at even strength for the fifth time when Niederreiter got in on the fun at the 15:06 mark. Niederreiter carried the puck into the Vancouver end before dropping it off to Kupari, who then sent it toward the net. The Swiss winger caught a piece of it before Lankinen stopped it but Niederreiter then banked the rebound in off the back of Lankinen to make it 5-0.
Winnipeg managed to get a whopping 20 shots on goal in the second to hold a 28-16 edge in shots through 40 minutes.
Early in the third, the Jets earned their third power play of the night and this time they made quick work of it.
Just nine seconds after Tyler Myers was called for hooking, Connor sent the puck down low to Nikolaj Ehlers who quickly got it in front to Scheifele. He made no mistake for his 26th of the season to make it 6-0.
Vancouver finally got on the board just over nine minutes into the period when Logan Stanley misplayed the puck just outside the Winnipeg end, allowing Nils Hoglander to pick it up and start a 2-on-1. He carried the puck in and ripped a shot high over Connor Hellebuyck’s shoulder to make it 6-1.
Hellebuyck finished with 23 saves to secure his 27th win of the season.
Ville Heinola replaced Dylan Coghlan in the lineup, while Vladislav Namestnikov missed a second straight game with a lower-body injury.
Winnipeg will look to make it three straight wins when they continue their lengthy homestand Thursday against Seattle.