WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Patrik Laine is growing fond of playing the Dallas Stars.
Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists, and Laine was one of four others with a goal and an assist as the Winnipeg Jets handed Dallas its fourth straight loss, 5-1 on Tuesday night.
“I wish we played 82 against those guys because I’d have a lot of goals,” said Laine, who's scored 18 goals in 16 career games against Dallas. “It just seems like it goes in. Don’t have any explanation.”
Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele also each had two points for Winnipeg, which is 4-1-0 in its past five games.
Miro Heiskanen scored for the Stars, who are 0-3-1 since ending a seven-game winning streak.
Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for Winnipeg (17-10-1), which went 10-3-1 in November.
Anton Khudobin stopped 25 shots for Dallas (15-11-3), which is two points behind the Jets in the Central Division.
"That was our worst game of the year," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "And we never responded throughout the game and I apologized to Dobie (Khudobin) after the second (period) for the effort in front of him."
Winnipeg led 1-0 after the first period and 4-1 after two.
It looked like Laine got the Jets a goal 13 seconds into the game, but Dallas successfully challenged for offside to wipe it away.
Ehlers made it 1-0 at 7:45 when he got the puck in the slot, spun around and beat Khudobin.
“We came out hard, got the first goal after 13 seconds, but we kept going after,” Ehlers said. “I don't think we gave them many chances and that's the way we've got to play.”
Winnipeg had an 8-3 advantage in shots on goal after the first period. The three shots allowed was a season-low for the Jets.
Khudobin started the second period by making two pad saves on breakaways by Scheifele and Ehlers, but then the bounces went against him.
Connor notched his 11th of the season off a deflection at 7:56. Morrissey got his goal courtesy of Stars forward Mattias Janmark, who had the rebound go off his skate to make it 3-0 at 11:12.
Heiskanen scored at 17:59 when he went in alone on Hellebuyck, but Laine countered with his eighth of the season just a minute and a half later to restore the Jets' three-goal lead.
"They were better in everything tonight,” Heiskanen said. “I don't know. It was a bad game. (Khudobin) was great today, but everyone else was bad."
The shots on goal after the second were 21-14 for Winnipeg, which was another season-low allowed through two periods for the Jets.
Scheifele made it 5-1 with a wrap-around goal at 13:59 of the third. Laine picked up an assist, giving him the team lead in points with 27. Scheifele has 26.
NOTES: Winnipeg Blue Bombers players Nic Demski, Andrew Harris and Chris Streveler dropped a ceremonial puck to honor the CFL team for winning last month's Grey Cup. ... The Jets announced earlier in the day that D Dmitry Kulikov will be out until late January with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
The teams play at Dallas on Thursday night.
