Mark Scheifele scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period and Kyle Connor had two assists to boost the visiting Winnipeg Jets to a 4-2 victory against the slumping Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
Playing under interim coach Anders Sorensen for the first time, the Blackhawks led 1-0 and 2-1 but couldn’t hold off the Jets en route to their season-worst fifth straight defeat.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 12 shots as Winnipeg won its second in a row on the heels of a four-game skid.
Scheifele capped the comeback at 10:18 of the third period, tapping a rebound of Connor’s shot past Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom. It was Scheifele’s 14th goal of the season, tying him with Connor for the club lead.
Mason Appleton, who had a goal and assist, secured the result with an empty-net goal with 1:41 left.
The Blackhawks scored first as they capitalized on an early power play. Alex Vlasic scored on a point shot at 9:01 of the first period, just 21 seconds after the Jets were penalized for delay of game.
Winnipeg tied the game 4:30 later when Gabriel Vilardi tipped Logan Stanley’s point shot past Soderblom as Chicago navigated an early transition in net.
Starting goaltender Petr Mrazek left the game midway through the first period after suffering an injury upon extending himself while stopping the Jets’ Adam Lowry.
Mrazek saved all four shots he faced before yielding to Soderblom, whose start in Monday’s loss at Toronto marked his first action since Nov. 19.
The Blackhawks regained the advantage with just 13 seconds remaining in the first period. Alec Martinez took a feed from Ilya Mikheyev just inside the blue line, then skated to the left circle and beat Hellebuyck with a wrist shot.
Winnipeg, which outshot Chicago 29-14, generated a heavy attack in the latter stages of the second period and finally broke through at the 13:10 mark. Nino Niederreiter gathered a pass from Appleton from behind the net, then weaved along the red line and roofed a backhand shot over Soderblom to tie the game at 2.
Soderblom made 21 saves. The Jets were 0-for-2 on the power play.
–Field Level Media
