Kyle Connor scored twice and had an assist for the Winnipeg Jets, who jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a 5-1 victory against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday in Winnipeg.

Dylan DeMelo, Josh Morrissey, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Pierre-Luc Dubois all had multi-point nights for the Jets. With Connor Hellebuyck sick, David Rittich made a spot start and stopped 35 shots.

The Jets moved within a point of the first-place Dallas Stars in the Central Division and bounced back from a loss earlier this week against the Seattle Kraken.

Cam Talbot was on the receiving end of the Jets’ onslaught, giving up the five goals on 24 shots. Ottawa has lost back-to-back games after a four-game winning streak.

Kevin Stenlund gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead 1:58 into the game when he batted his own rebound out of midair for his first goal of the season.

Five minutes later, Morrissey walked in from the blue line and picked the top corner to make it 2-0 with his sixth goal of the season.

Ottawa made it 2-1 at 8:28 of the first period, on a power-play goal by Drake Batherson, before Winnipeg continued the rout.

Sam Gagner scored with 13 seconds remaining in the first period to make it 3-1. Gagner’s goal came from a sharp angle on a delayed penalty. The Jets smartly re-grouped and attacked for a 6-on-5 instead of giving up the puck on the play.

Connor then scored twice in the second period.

He made it 4-1 on a rebound 1:02 into the period with his 14th goal of the season. He then made it 5-1 at 14:23 when he ripped a shot from the slot after a feed from Dubois.

With a 5-1 lead, Winnipeg went into prevent mode in the third period and effectively choked out any offensive flourish for either team in the final 20 minutes.

–Field Level Media