WINNIPEG — Head coach Scott Arniel was relieved the Winnipeg Jets ended a couple more dubious streaks Sunday.
When Tanner Pearson scored early in the third period and the goal held up as the winner in a 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils, it halted one team slump and an NHL record.
The Jets had gone into the contest with an NHL-record 13 consecutive losses in one-goal games, plus they finally won back-to-back games since mid-November.
“See, that’s why we didn’t shoot it into the empty net, we wanted this to be a one-goal game.” Arniel said with a smile.
Winnipeg defeated the Los Angeles Kings 5-1 on Friday, a victory that snapped an 11-game losing streak (0-7-4).
“You know what, such a big hurdle the other night, to get over that game against L.A., to get over that losing streak,” Arniel said. “That was the hurdle that we needed to move us forward here.
“Today, again, we weren’t perfect but we found a way. All of those kind of things that happened in that streak, I don’t want to use the s-word, but when stuff happens, it happens. That’s what was kind of going on with us. Now it’s put that in the rear-view mirror here.”
The Jets (17-22-5) are finally out of the league basement, sitting 31st with 39 points, two points more than the bottom-dwelling Vancouver Canucks (16-23-5).
Being nine points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference is still the steep hill the Jets have to climb, a turnabout from last season when they won the Presidents' Trophy for finishing with the NHL's best record.
“I was saying today, it’s interesting, used to always be running to the highlights or catch what’s going on with Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota,” Arniel said. “And now I’m not even looking at them.
“I’m looking at all these other teams in the (Western Conference), what are they doing tonight? It’s kind of what our mindset is, catch teams above us now.”
Alex Iafallo, Jonathan Toews and Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Cole Perfetti and Josh Morrissey both recorded a pair of assists.
Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves for Winnipeg, which last put up back-to-back wins on Nov. 15-18.
“That's frustrating that took so long for that,” Perfetti said of two wins a row. “But, it doesn't kind of seem real.
“There was obviously stretches where we didn't play our best, but there was also a lot of hockey that we did play well. So to get, for that to be the first back-to-back wins since then, it's just, it's nice to get over the hump and start playing better hockey and start getting some wins.”
Winnipeg-born forward Cody Glass scored twice and Nico Hischier also had a goal for the Devils. Luke Hughes and Jack Hughes both had two assists.
Jake Allen stopped 18 shots for New Jersey (22-21-2), which lost four consecutive games for the first time since early December.
The game was tied 1-1 after the opening period and 3-3 heading into the third.
“I think that game was pretty sloppy for two periods both ways and both goaltenders were under a barrage there,” Arniel said.
“But just the fact we came out in the third period recognizing that 3-3 at home, just go out and play a period and put the chips on the table, and I thought we did a good job of that. We didn’t give up much and our fourth line scored a big goal.”
Morrissey rushed wide to the side of the net with the puck and quickly sent it to Pearson out front, who redirected it past Allen to make it 4-3 at 6:17 of the third.
Pearson, who scored his sixth goal of the season, said it felt good to close out a tight game on the right side.
“Sometimes the game is pretty funny,” he said. “We’ve played better than that and ended up on the losing side.
“It’s a tie game going into the third, those are the games where you’ve got to put your foot down, especially at home. We can’t take any games off nowadays. That was a good one for us.”
The Jets wrap up a five-game homestand (2-1-1) on Tuesday against the New York Islanders.
