CHICAGO — Saku Maenalanen and Pierre-Luc Dubois each scored two goals to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 7-2 at United Center on Sunday.
Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists and Josh Morrissey had three assists for the Jets (13-6-1), who went 2-1-0 on their three-game road trip. Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves.
“It just kept rolling,” Dubois said. “If you want to be a successful team in this League, the only way to do it throughout the 82-game season is like that, where everybody contributes. Some nights, some lines might contribute more offensively or defensively, but for it to be sustainable , that’s how it’s going to have to look this year. We did a good job tonight.”
Video: WPG@CHI: Dubois scores PPG in 3rd period
Petr Mrazek made 37 saves for the Blackhawks (6-11-4), who have lost seven in a row (0-6-1). The Chicago locker room was closed for an extended period after the game.
“I’m never going to get into the specifics about what’s being said in the locker room,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “But all in all, yeah, I think we all agree that as a group we need to be more mentally prepared, even if there’s nights where, it’s a long season and sometimes you don’t have the energy and you don’t have it. You’ve just got to find ways to play a better team game and keep yourself in games, and sometimes when you work to do that, things start going your way, you get a couple goals and all of a sudden it gives you that little burst of energy that you’re looking for.
“We just kind of fed into what [the Jets] want to do as a team and we got away from our team game today, so it’s all those little details aside from just our preparation and making sure we’re getting each other ready to go and playing the right way so that we can go out there and give ourselves a chance to create the results we want.”
Video: WPG@CHI: Maenalanen nets his 2nd goal of the game
Jansen Harkins opened the scoring for the Jets at 15:51 of the first period Adam Lowry fed him a backhand pass from behind the net in front.
Two minutes earlier, the Blackhawks had an apparent goal by Andreas Athanasiou Winnipeg challenged for offside after being disallowed.
Maenalanen gave the Jets a 2-0 lead at 2:55 of the second period when he scored on the rebound of a shot by Morgan Barron.
Taylor Raddysh pulled the Blackhawks within 2-1 at 3:12. He scored from in front, picking up the rebound of Philip Kurashev‘s shot.
Connor scored on a 5-on-3 power play to give the Jets a 3-1 lead at 8:37. Connor took a cross-ice pass from Morrissey and scored from the right face-off circle.
Maenalanen made it 4-1 at 9:52, skating down the left side and firing a wrist shot from just above the face-off dot over the glove of Mrazek.
“We’ve seen him do that a few times,” Dubois said. “He has a nice shot. He’s been playing really well for us. He’s been a surprise this year for a lot of people. We saw him from training camp, what he could do for this team and what he can bring to the table. Offensively, to start the year, maybe it wasn’t there, but everybody in this dressing room and the coaching staff knew he was for us. It’s good to see that pay off tonight.”
Video: WPG@CHI: Connor rips a one-timer on the power play
Jujhar Khaira scored on the power play for Chicago at 15:09 to make it 4-2, picking up the puck after it rebounded off the end board by a shot Caleb Jones.
The Jets went ahead 5-2 at 18:57 on a goal Mark Scheifelewho shot from just inside the right circle after taking a pass from Blake Wheeler out of the corner.
Dubois gave Winnipeg a 6-2 lead at 4:37 of the third period, when his shot from the left side deflected into the net off the stick of a Chicago defenseman. Philip Roos.
Dubois scored on the power play at 12:10, redirecting Morrisey’s point shot for the 7-2 final.
“We had some good goals, some timely goals,” said Jets coach Rick Bowness. “We did a lot of good things out there tonight. Every line scored, so that’s nice to see. We need some goals from that bottom six, and we’ve been getting them.”
NOTES: The Jets activated Barron off injured reserve after recovering from wrist surgery. He was plus-2 with an assist in 11:49 of ice time in his first game since Oct. 30, “I was excited,” he said. “Anytime you’re out, it’s a little tougher watching the guys from home or from the stands. We’ve played some great hockey in the past month. I was really happy watching the guys play as long as they kept getting wins.”
.