Winnipeg Jets score two third-period goals to secure 3-2 victory over Ottawa Senators

Apr 14, 2021 | 6:41 PM

OTTAWA — Mathieu Perreault and Trevor Lewis scored third-period goals to lead the Winnipeg Jets to a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.

After a scoreless second period, Perreault put Winnipeg ahead 2-1 at 2:07 of the third. Perreault fired a high shot past Ottawa goaltender Matt Murray on the power play for his ninth goal of the season.

But it was Lewis who broke Ottawa’s back, scoring shorthanded at 9:39 to put Winnipeg ahead 3-1. Lewis registered his third of the year.

Josh Norris’s power-play goal, and 12th of the season, with 10 seconds pulled Ottawa to within 3-2.

Mark Scheifele had the other goal for Winnipeg (26-14-3), which earned its fourth win in five games and avenged a 4-2 loss to Ottawa on Monday night. More importantly, the Jets moved to within five points of North Division-leading Toronto (28-11-4), which was idle.

Nick Paul also scored for Ottawa (14-26-4), which fell 9-10-4 at home this season.

Murray, who finished with 32 saves, was making his first start in goal for Ottawa since March 10. He suffered an upper-body injury in warmups before a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 14. 

Ottawa went 5-6-3 without Murray, using four goalies — Joey Daccord, Filip Gustavsson, Anton Forsberg and Marcus Hogberg — in his absence.

Ottawa’s Connor Brown had his club-record goal-scoring streak halted at eight straight games. He was looking to become the first player since Teemu Selanne in 1997-98 to score in nine straight contests.

Laurent Brossoit played in goal for Winnipeg after Connor Hellebuyck had made seven straight starts. Brossoit finished with 27 saves.

Ottawa opened the scoring with Paul’s fourth goal of the season just 1:19 into the contest. But Scheifele countered at  3:24, converting Nikolaj Ehlers’ nifty backhand pass for his 16th of the year as Winnipeg outshot the Senators 11-9.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.

The Canadian Press