NHL Game Summary - Buffalo at Winnipeg
Winnipeg, MB (SportsNetwork.com) - Mark Scheifele had two goals and an assist to lead the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-1 thumping of the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
Evander Kane and Michael Frolik each posted a goal and an assist while Chris Thorburn also scored for the Jets, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Ondrej Pavelec stopped 27 shots in the win.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of helping the D out and I thought the D played off each other pretty well and moved the puck pretty efficiently," said Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice. "But again, we were able to spend the right amount of time in the offensive zone, which takes that pressure off the D and they did a good job when we got in trouble finding sticks and when we couldn't do that our goalie made the right saves."
Nikita Zadorov scored the only goal of the game for the Sabres, who were riding a four-game winning streak coming into the game. Michal Neuvirth allowed all five goals on 36 shots in the loss.
"Maybe not physically but mentally, we just made a couple of crucial mistakes at bad times," said Buffalo head coach Ted Nolan. "I liked our first period and then all of a sudden a couple of big mistakes and then we are playing catch up the rest of the game."
The only goal of the first period went to Buffalo with 43.1 seconds left as Zadorov's wrister from the left circle fooled Pavelec for a power-play goal.
Winnipeg, though, tied the game near the midway mark of the second period on Scheifele's heavy wrister from the right circle just as a power play expired.
Skating shorthanded, Winnipeg took a 2-1 lead at 11:35 of the second on a 2- on-1 break that saw Jim Slater skate down the right wing and send it to the slot where Frolik wristed it home for his seventh of the season.
Three minutes later, the Jets made it a 3-1 contest on another 2-on-1 break as Mathieu Perreault fed Scheifele for his sixth of the season.
Just 1:11 into the third period, the Jets scored a marker on the power play as Kane chipped it in from the right side. Thorburn scored with 7:21 remaining to account for the final score.