The 2024-25 Winnipeg Jets had only lost four games in a row once all season.
They weren’t about to let that happen again, taking it to the Flyers 4-1 Thursday night in Philadelphia to ensure they would be alone in first place in the NHL standings heading into the Friday afternoon trade deadline.
The Jets earned their first power play of the game at the 7:47 mark of the first when Matvei Michkov bowled over Eric Comrie in the Winnipeg crease, and less than a minute later the Jets made him pay.
Winnipeg’s top PP unit got set up and the puck landed on the stick of Kyle Connor on the half-wall. He held it for a few seconds before sliding it to Gabriel Vilardi in the slot, whose shot was stopped by Samuel Ersson but the rebound was knocked home by Mark Scheifele to open the scoring at 8:32 with his 35th of the season.
Philadelphia took another penalty at the 14:30 mark and once again Winnipeg’s power play took advantage. Connor’s cross-ice pass attempt was touched by Vilardi in the slot before landing on the stick of Scheifele, who quickly steered it back-door where Nikolaj Ehlers was waiting to pot it home for his 20th of the season.
That gave the Jets four goals in five power play attempts after an 0-for-19 slump.
Winnipeg outshot the Flyers 10-8 in the first and blew the doors off Philadelphia to start the second.
Connor made it 3-0 at the 5:28 mark after taking a Scheifele pass in full flight through the neutral zone, zooming into the Flyers’ end and ripping a wrister through Ersson.
It was the captain who made it 4-0 at the 9:03 mark. Dylan Samberg got the play started with a perfect stretch pass from his own end to Nino Niederreiter, who dished it to Mason Appleton as they entered the Philly zone. He drove the puck low before sending it in front to Adam Lowry, who scored into a wide-open net.
The Flyers didn’t register a shot on goal over the first 11 minutes of the period and while they outshot the Jets 6-1 over the final 8:50, the score remained 4-0 heading to the third.
Philadelphia finally broke the goose egg with 2:42 to go when Michkov beat Comrie with a wicked wrister from the faceoff dot to Comrie’s right.
Winnipeg’s backup netminder made 21 saves to earn the win while Ersson turned aside 23 shots in defeat.
All eyes now turn to Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to see what moves he might make before Friday’s 2 p.m. trade deadline. A few hours later, the Jets will be back in action against the New Jersey Devils, pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. with the puck dropping a little after 6 p.m.