Mark Scheifele scored twice Friday to help lift the visiting Winnipeg Jets past the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1.
Blake Wheeler added a goal and an assist, Nikolaj Ehlers also scored, Cole Perfetti had three assists and Dylan DeMelo contributed two assists for the Jets, who have won seven of their past eight games.
Winnipeg goaltender David Rittich made 22 saves.
Drew O’Connor scored for the Penguins, who had won two straight.
Goaltender Dustin Tokarski, making his second appearance and first start for Pittsburgh, stopped 36 shots.
The Penguins played without their top three defensemen. Marcus Pettersson was ill. Kris Letang (lower-body injury/bereavement) and Jeff Petry (upper-body injury) already were out.
The Jets opened the scoring at 11:19 of the first on a power play. Off a scramble in front, Tokarski cleared the puck as it was about to cross the goal line, but Wheeler was able to bat it in with a backhander.
Winnipeg thought it had a 2-0 lead at 15:42 of the first when Scheifele deflected a shot by Neal Pionk past Tokarski, but the Penguins successfully challenged that the Jets were offside on the play.
Pittsburgh tied it at 16:42 of the first. Kasperi Kapanen pinched the puck from DeMelo in the neutral zone. DeMelo lost his stick, affecting his effectiveness defending an ensuing two-on-one. Kapanen got a pass to O’Connor, who shoveled the puck in off Rittich.
Winnipeg missed another chance at a goal with 1:45 left in the first. Pionk blasted the puck in from the center point, but it was immediately ruled no goal because of goaltender interference with Pierre-Luc Dubois in the crease. The Jets unsuccessfully challenged the call.
With two goals in 22 seconds, Winnipeg took a 3-1 lead late in the second. Scheifele, from the low slot, one-timed a setup from Wheeler for his 25th goal, and Ehlers scored on a rising wrist shot from the left circle with 1:40 left.
Pittsburgh’s Jason Zucker and the Jets’ Brenden Dillon fought at 5:18 of the third.
Scheifele’s one-timer off a pass from DeMelo at 6:39 of the third upped the margin to 4-1.
–Field Level Media
