WINNIPEG — Pairing Drew Stafford with Mark Scheifele helped the Winnipeg Jets end their losing skid.
Stafford and Scheifele both scored twice and added an assist each as the Jets snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
Stafford’s first goal in 12 games helped break a 1-1 tie late in the second period. He scored an empty-netter with 1:34 left in the game.
“Twelve? OK,” Stafford said when he asked about the end of his drought. “At this point, I’m not really worried about stats or counting the games. That’s just more clutter in your head.
“I’m just trying to stay solid and play the same way and eventually things will turn around. We changed the lines around, too, so the way I play the game is a little different tonight than it has been in the last 10, 12.”
Scheifele centred a line with Stafford on the right side and Mathieu Perrault on the other, who picked up three assists.
Head coach Paul Maurice put the trio together after the Jets (9-9-2) came back from a four-game road trip with four losses. The team had been winless in six, only picking up a point in a shootout loss in Ottawa on Nov. 5.
“It’s always awesome playing with Matty and, obviously, me and Staff have played a lot together, too,” Scheifele said. “We were moving the puck well, we were on the forecheck hard.
“Obviously, it’s the first game. We still can do better, and hopefully we can build off that.”
Ondrej Pavelec made 29 saves for Winnipeg.
Ryan Miller stopped 30 of the 33 shots he faced for the Canucks (7-7-6), who lost their fourth game in a row in the final game of the team’s season-long, seven-game road trip. Daniel Sedin scored on the power play for Vancouver.
“We were right there and trying to get a chance at the end to tie it up, but just couldn’t quite get there,” Miller said. “We keep saying we’re close. We’ve got to make the turn here.”
Vancouver only came away with four points from its road trip.
“We were looking for two points and go home with a decent road trip at least,” Henrik Sedin said. “But it’s another tough one where I don’t think you can question the way we battled,”
The victory began a three-game homestand and the Jets came out in feisty moods. Scheifele got the best kind of retaliation with his sixth goal of the season at 5:55 of the first period. The power-play goal came just over a minute after Jets rookie winger Nikolaj Ehlers headed to the dressing room after an illegal hit to the head by Luca Sbisa.
It was only the fifth time this season Winnipeg has scored the first goal in a game. Ehlers returned to action later in the period.
Daniel Sedin tied the game 1-1 at 6:44 of the second after Alexandre Burrows lost the puck and Sedin picked it up in front of the Jets’ net and put it past Pavelec. It was his seventh goal of the season and 899th career point.
Stafford got the go-ahead goal at 17:29 of the second when he got his own rebound and flipped a backhand over Miller for his sixth of the season.
Scheifele scored his second of the game at 17:15 of the third with a rebound.
The Jets are home to Arizona on Saturday, while the Canucks host Chicago the same night.
