Valardi and Connor have three point nights as Jets down Wild 6-3

Written by  Published in Winnipeg Jets
Winnipeg, Manitoba (NHN)-Gabriel Valardi scored twice and added an assist and Kyle Connor scored and added two assists to pace the Winnipeg Jets to a 6-3 win over the visiting Minnesota Wild Tuesday night.

Mason Appleton, Sean Monahan and Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Jets, who have won three of their last four games.

Dylan DeMelo, Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry each had two assists.

Laurent Brossoit made 36 saves for Winnipeg, who Marco Rossi had a pair of goals for Minnesota.

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist.

Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 24 shots for the Wild, who Gabriel Valardi gave the Jets the lead 9:20 into the first period with a power play marker.

With Declan Chisolm off for hooking, Valardi redirected a Kyle Connor shot from the left face off circle with his skate to make it 1-0 Winnipeg.

Mason Appleton scored 14 seconds later when Adam Lowry fed him a pass from behind the net which the winger promptly snapped past Fleury to give the Jets a 2-0 lead.

The goal was his 10th of the season.

Kyle Connor converted a Gabriel Valardi feather pass just under two minutes into the second period to give the Jets a 3-0 lead.

Valardi worked the puck into the Minnesota zone along the right side boards before floating a pass into the high slot which Connor skated into before wiring a wrister past Fleury to score his 20th goal of the season.

Marco Rossi converted a Declan Chisolm feed 14:10 into the second on the power play to get Minnesota on the board.

With Ryan Hartman off for holding, Valardi extended the Jets lead to three as he tipped a Josh Morrissey shot from the point past Fleury at 9:38.

The goal was his 15th of the season.

Sean Monahan tipped a Dylan DeMelo shot past Fleury at 10:36 to make it 5-1 Jets.

The goal was his 18th of the season and fourth in his last two games.

Kirill Kaprizov scored on the power play when hammered an Joel Eriksson Ek saucer pass past Brossoit to pull Minnesota within three at 12:33.

The goal was his 24th of the season.

Marco Rossi tipped a Kirill Kaprizov shot past Brossoit to make it 5-3 at 14:11 of the third.

The goal was his 17th of the season.

Nino Niederreiter scored into an empty net with just under three minutes left in regulation to seal the win for the Jets.

Minnesota visits Edmonton and Winnipeg travels to Chicago on Friday.

SHOTS-MINNESOTA 39 WINNIPEG 30

ATTENDANCE-14,707

Philip Paul-Martin

A well rounded journalist with experience in both print and broadcast mediums, Philip has written news stories with impact, broken national news while at the CBC, anchored radio news and hosted talk show radio. His coverage includes feature writing, game stories and more in-depth pieces during the off-season as well as writing about the National Hockey League and the Winnipeg Jets. He calls Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada home.