Ehlers gets hat trick, Jets ease past Blue Jackets

Ehlers gets hat trick, Jets ease past Blue Jackets

Connor extends season-opening point streak to 11 for Winnipeg

Jets at Blue Jackets | Recap

COLUMBUS — Nikolaj Ehlers scored a hat trick and had an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 6-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Friday.

Kyle Connor had an assist to extend his season-opening point streak to 11 games for the Jets (10-1-0), who became the 12th team in NHL history to have 10 wins through their first 11 games.

Mason Appleton, Josh Morrissey and Gabriel Vilardi scored for Winnipeg, and Eric Comrie made 20 saves.

Sean Kuraly and Sean Monahan scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 37 saves for the Blue Jackets (5-4-1). Their four-game point streak (3-0-1) was snapped on Friday.

Ehlers made it 1-0 at 5:13 of the first period with a slap shot off the rush from the top of the left circle.

Kuraly tied it 1-1 at 11:02 before Ehlers gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 15:14 with a wrist shot from the right face-off dot.

Appleton extended the lead to 3-1 at 2:20 of the second period, one-timing a shot through traffic from the right circle off a feed by Neal Pionk.

Monahan made it 3-2 on the power play at 16:29. He tipped in Zach Werenski’s shot from the point for his sixth goal, which leads the Blue Jackets.

Ehlers scored at 18:51 for the hat trick and a 4-2 lead. His three-goal game marked the fifth of his career and his first since Dec. 20, 2018.

Morrissey made it 5-2 at 11:39 of the third period with a power-play goal from the top of the left circle, and Vilardi scored at 14:54 to make it 6-2 after Connor dangled two defensemen and fed him at the top of the crease.