WINNIPEG – Cole Perfetti’s first career hat trick and Nikolaj Ehlers’ 500th career NHL were enough to push the Winnipeg Jets to a 5-2 victory over the Utah Hockey Club at Canada Life Centre on Friday.
Matias Maccelli was called for the first penalty of the game. A holding call allowed the Winnipeg Jets to score the game’s opening goal.
Gabriel Vilardi entered the offensive zone and passed the puck up to Nikolaj Ehlers on the wall, Ehlers skated the puck up a bit before feeding Cole Perfetti cross-crease for his first goal of the night.
“I was just trying to focus on the input on the small things and doing every little detail as best I can,” Perfetti said about scoring his first career hat trick tonight.
With 13.8 seconds left, Vilardi was called for slashing and Utah had their first power play opportunity of the game. Utah converted on the power play as Nick Schmaltz tipped the puck in off Michael Kesselring’s point shot.
David Gustafsson pulled the Jets ahead again as a weird bounce behind Utah’s net from Dylan DeMelo’s dump tricked Connor Ingram. Gustafsson scored the snapshot goal for his first of the season on the empty net to put the Jets up 2-1.
The Jets would take the 2-1 lead into the third period and continued to mount the pressure on Utah.
Utah tied the game early in the third period as Barrett Hayton took a wrist shot deep in the right circle. With the game tied 2-2, it seemed like it was anyone’s game, but Cole Perfetti scored his second goal after Vladislav Namestnikov passed the rebound in front of Ingram to Perfetti.
“He’s learned from things that have happened in the past,” Scott Arniel said when asked about Cole Perfetti. “He doesn’t get down. He gets frustrated, but he doesn’t get down and let it drag into the rest of his game,” Arniel added.
Up 3-2, the Jets didn’t take their foot off the gas. Nikolaj Ehlers got on the breakaway and scored on a backhand that beat Ingram to put the Jets up 4-2.
With Utah’s net empty, Ehlers and Perfetti got toward the net with the puck on Ehlers’ stick. Ehlers passed the puck to Perfetti who glided the puck into the empty Utah net for his first career hat trick and Ehlers’ 500th career NHL point.
The Winnipeg Jets improved to 33-14-3 with their win over Utah. The Jets are back in action on Sunday, January 26th when they welcome the Calgary Flames for a 5:00 pm CST puck drop.
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