Mathieu Perreault had a goal and three assists and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-4 Thursday night at MTS Centre.

Mark Scheifele got the Jets on the board early as he beat Blue Jackets goaltender Curtis McElhinney just 27 seconds into the first period.

Adam Lowry and Dustin Byfuglien also scored in the opening frame before Boone Jenner potted his 12th of the season for the Blue Jackets at the 15:38 mark.

Lowry was thrilled to finally break through and notch his first of the season.

"It’s been awhile, so I was happy that it came in a win. It was nice to finally get on the scoreboard. I think we got off to a pretty hot start. We liked our game for the first two periods for the most part. In the third period, we kind of loosened up a little bit. That tends to happen when you can score a few goals, you kind of start to relax a little, and they were able to capitalize and make it close at the end.  The way we finished the game I don’t think that’s necessarily how we want to play but we’re happy with the result."

Drew Stafford, Perreault and Blake Wheeler into an empty net were the Winnipeg goal scorers in the third period.

Hellebuyck won for the fourth time in as many starts since replacing the injured Ondrej Pavelec on the Jets roster.

Winnipeg (14-13-2) will meet the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in Chicago tonight and then host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.


photos by Ray Peters