Kyle Connor scored a hat trick and Mark Scheifele collected four assists as the Winnipeg Jets won their third straight, defeating the visiting Nashville Predators 6-3 on Thursday.

Mason Appleton, Cole Perfetti and Brenden Dillon were the other scorers for the Jets, while Dylan DeMelo and Alex Iafallo each had a pair of assists. Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter and Morgan Barron also chipped in helpers. Laurent Brossoit made 20 saves.

Filip Forsberg scored twice for Nashville, and Philip Tomasino also tallied. Tyson Barrie had two assists, while Juuse Saros made 31 saves.

The Jets opened the scoring 4:04 into the game. A backhand pass from Lowry led to a shot on goal from Appleton, which went off a Predators defender and slid past Saros.

Nashville evened the score at 6:43 when Forsberg created space with a dazzling toe drag and popped the puck into the net.

A brilliant start to the second period restored Winnipeg’s lead. Scheifele seamlessly found Connor, who one-timed the puck from the slot to make it 2-1 at 1:05.

Connor scored again 2:43 later, streaking across the ice with speed and slipping the puck past the goal line.

Winnipeg kept its footing while turning the scoreboard to 4-1 at 10:33. On a 5-on-3 opportunity, when Perfetti squeezed the puck top corner.

Forsberg tallied his second of the game at 12:05, bouncing the puck off Brossoit’s glove and in.

Dillon extended the Jets’ lead to 5-2 with 7:09 left in the third period.

A tip by Tomasino making it 5-3 with 3:44 remaining was quickly nullified by Connor’s third goal of the game, an empty-netter with 3:16 left.

–Field Level Media