OTTAWA — The Winnipeg Jets extended their franchise-record win streak to 11 games, topping the Ottawa Senators 4-1 Wednesday night in what Mason Appleton called the “ugliest” of the wins over the last while.
But a win is a win, and Winnipeg continued its run as the top team in the NHL.
“When you put together a streak like this, not every win is going to look the same. That would be almost impossible. It’s a testament to the kind of team we are and how deep we are and find different ways to win,” Appleton said.
Winnipeg (42-14-3) got two goals in quick succession at the midpoint of the first period from Appleton and Cole Perfetti, taking advantage of some ill-timed mistakes from Ottawa that pushed the surging Jets out of reach.
The struggling Senators (29-25-4) have now lost five straight.
“The first two periods were pretty sloppy,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “It’s bound to happen. We couldn’t make a play. We weren’t connecting. We did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic of (our team) but we played a lot better in the third.
“That’s our group and that’s our captains’ recognizing it.”
In net, it was a battle of the last two Vezina Trophy winners in Linus Ullmark, who won it with the Boston Bruins in 2022-23 and Connor Hellebuyck, who added his name to the trophy last year for Winnipeg.
Hellebuyck made 24 saves for the Jets while Ullmark stopped 36 in a losing effort.
Ullmark is still searching for his first win since Dec. 19 and is winless in four starts since coming back from injury.
Hellebuyck, meanwhile, has now gone an incredible 21-2-2 in his last 25 starts and continues to lead the league in Goals Against Average as he looks to become the first to win the Vezina Trophy in back-to-back seasons since Martin Brodeur in 2007-08.
“We’re winning in different ways and that says a lot about our group as well. Tonight, you don’t want to play like that but when you have the best goalie in the world it helps,” Perfetti said.
“(Hellebuyck) saved our bacon a few times,” added Appleton. “It was a vintage game by him.”
Kyle Connor potted his 31st of the season at 11:56 of the second to make it 3-0. Less than 50 seconds later Thomas Chabot replied for Ottawa to get the Senators on the board.
Mark Scheifele, who became the Jets’ franchise leader in goals Monday night, added an empty-netter late in the third for his 33rd goal of the season.
Ottawa dressed just 11 forwards and seven defencemen Wednesday and will gladly welcome some of their stars returning to stop its losing skid.
Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Shane Pinto all skated Wednesday morning but Ottawa head coach Travis Green confirmed they would be out, with no formal update on when they would return.
The Senators were missing some firepower — to the tune of 51 goals so far this season — with those three inactive.
“It’s no secret we’re missing some of our skilled players, our top-end players,” Green said. “I thought we had some good looks, but we couldn’t score. For a couple of reasons. They have a really good goalie and it’s hard to score in the NHL.”
Winnipeg is now six wins away from the all-time NHL streak of 17 held by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins. The Edmonton Oilers had last season’s longest winning streak with 16.
“There’s a way we need to play consistently and we’re always trying to build our brand towards what’s coming down the road,” Arniel said. “We’re going to have big games from now until the end of the season and we’re going to have big games getting into the playoffs.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.
Adam Stanley, The Canadian Press
