Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick, his line partner Kyle Connor provided two goals, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Monday afternoon.
The Jets thus avenged a bitter setback of 6 to 4 – their first of the season after starting the calendar with eight victories – suffered at the hands of these same Leafs on October 28.
Scheifele and Connor both finished their afternoon with four points on the clock. They completed the job by combining their efforts for an empty-net goal at 19:39 of the third period.
Gabriel Vilardi (0-3) and Josh Morrissey (0-2) also contributed offensively to help Winnipeg stop Toronto's three-game winning streak.
Authors of a 5-4-1 record in their ten previous games, the Jets added a 24th victory to their record in their 35th game (24-10-1). They are three points ahead of the Washington Capitals in first place in the overall NHL standings.
The Manitoba team, however, played three more games than Washington (22-8-2).
Only John Tavares was able to deceive the vigilance of goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck, twice, for his 16th and 17th goals of the campaign.
The 2023-2024 Vezina Trophy recipient had a 19-save shutout in his most recent start, against Minnesota.
William Nylander provided two assists, scoring at least one point in his seventh straight game.
Joseph Woll, for his part, gave up four times on 24 shots, after giving up five goals to the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews missed a second consecutive game. The American aggravated the upper body injury that caused him to miss nine games last month.
Toronto was also without one of their best defensemen in Chris Tanev, who is nursing a lower body injury.
Matthews played 19:18 and scored his 11th goal of the season in Friday night's 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres, but he was held out of Saturday's matchup against the Isles.
The 27-year-old missed nine games between November 3 and 30 and even sought treatment in Germany.
Matthews has 11 goals and 23 points in 24 games this season, after scoring a league-high 69 goals last season.
