Mark Scheifele reached a historic milestone, as he scored a first period power-play goal to help the Winnipeg Jets defeat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Saturday night.
The Jets assistant captain converted a pass from Kyle Connor to score his sixth goal of the season at 2:39. That was the 813th point of his career, moving him past Blake Wheeler. Alex Iafallo also assisted.
Vladislav Namestnikov, on the power play, Logan Stanley and Nino Niederreiter also scored for Winnipeg. Namestnikov and Niederreiter added assists and Jonathan Toews had two helpers.
Michael Bunting replied for Nashville with 1:04 left in the game.
Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for Winnipeg (4-1-0) before 14,309 fans at Canada Life Centre.
Juuso Saros stopped 20 of 24 shots for Nashville.
Namestnikov made it 4-0 on the power play when he converted a Toews pass.
Stanley gave Winnipeg a 3-0 lead early in the third period, when his blast from the point beat a screened Saros.
Niederreiter upped the score to 2-0 midway through the first. Namestnikov sent Niederreiter on a breakaway with a long pass from inside his own zone. The winger then deked Saros and beat him on the backhand.
Jets: They jumped all over the Preds early in the first, with Scheifele notching his milestone, outshot Nashville 11-3, and took a 2-0 lead into the second period.
Predators: They rebounded by dominating the middle frame, outshooting Winnipeg 17-4, but failing to beat a brilliant Hellebuyck.
With the Jets clinging to a 2-0 lead early in the third, Stanley’s bomb gave Winnipeg a 3-0 lead, taking the wind of the sails of Nashville’s hopes for a comeback.
While leading 2-0, the Jets killed off a two-men short penalty for 44 seconds early in the second period to preserve that edge.
Predators: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
Jets: Visit the Calgary Flames on Monday.
