Lowry's tiebreaking goal sends Jets to 3-2 win over Ducks
Adam Lowry scored the tiebreaking goal with 9:13 to play and the Winnipeg Jets made progress in the playoff race with a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
Kyle Connor scored his 28th goal and Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets, who opened a three-game California road trip with their third victory in four games.
After Frank Vatrano tied it for Anaheim early in the third with a power-play goal, Lowry put the Jets back ahead with a short redirection of a pass from Brenden Dillon for his third goal in four games.
"That's our group," said Connor, who snapped his 11-game goal drought in the second period. "We're a resilient type, no matter what we face. We have confidence in here in each other that we'll get out of it, and it's going to make us stronger. Especially coming down to the playoffs, you know you're not going to win every game, so you've got to deal with those situations when they happen.
"It's no quit in here from everybody."
Mason Appleton scored the first goal for Winnipeg, which has beaten Anaheim in five straight meetings, including a three-game sweep this season.
Winnipeg is in the second wild-card slot in the Western Conference with 85 points and nine games to play, one point behind Seattle. Nashville, which beat the Kraken in a shootout earlier Thursday, is five points behind the Jets, but the Predators have three games in hand.
"It's no secret," Lowry said. "We know where we're at and how critical these games are. We can only control our play, but we're going to try to carry this momentum into Saturday."
Cam Fowler also scored and Lukas Dostal stopped 30 shots for the lottery-bound Ducks, who dropped to 1-4-1 on their eight-game homestand with their third consecutive defeat.
Fowler scored his career-best 43rd point with a goal in the first period on a knuckling shot that threaded a path among three Anaheim teammates.
"He's been unbelievable," Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said of Fowler. "I hope that he's proud of himself to have a career year in a year like this. ... He does a lot of things for us, and especially now he carries a lot of ice time. He's a leader in our dressing room. He basically does it all, so we're all real proud of Cam."
Appleton evened it 45 seconds later and Connor then scored late in the second period on remarkably similar plays, knocking in loose pucks after rebounds trickled underneath Dostal.
Connor is Winnipeg's leading scorer, but he hadn't scored a goal in March, and he had gone scoreless in a season-high six consecutive games.
"It's something to build on," Connor said. "We have nine games left now, and we want to continue to move forward improving, and hit the playoffs with a running stride here."
Vatrano tied it with a low shot from the blue line while Derek Grant screened Hellebuyck in a rare mistake by the Jets' second-ranked penalty killers. The goal was Vatrano's 18th of the season, matching his total in each of the past two seasons with Florida and the Rangers.
UP NEXT
Jets: At Los Angeles on Saturday.
Ducks: Host St. Louis on Saturday.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.