Connor scores twice in 34 seconds, Jets defeat Bruins in shootout

BOSTON -- Kyle Connor scored twice in 34 seconds in the third period and had the lone goal in the shootout in the Winnipeg Jets' 4-3 win against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday.

Connor tied the game 2-2 with his 20th goal of the season at 4:27 of the third period and then gave the Jets a 3-2 lead at 5:01.
"Just kind of a quick turn of events," Connor said. "Got the breakaway, just trying to get a shot off quick on that one, the guy was closing on me.
WATCH: [All Jets vs. Bruins highlights]
"The second one was a great play by (Blake Wheeler) and (Mark Scheifele). I was just in front, finished that one off."

Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves, and Josh Morrissey scored for Winnipeg (32-16-2), which avoided its first three-game losing streak of the season.
"You know, I thought I was feeling good. I like this arena," Hellebuyck said. "I thought I did my part and then the guys, they battled hard. And you could see we slowly started taking over the game and controlling flow and it shows. We went right to the end, and I thought that was exciting to watch."

Patrice Bergeron scored two goals, and Jaroslav Halak made 24 saves for Boston (27-17-6), which is 1-2-2 in its past five games. David Pastrnak had a goal and two assists, and Brad Marchand had three assists.
The Bruins were playing their first game since Jan. 19 following their mandatory five-day break before the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend. The Jets lost at the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday in their first game since Jan. 19.
"There wasn't much rust. Against a team like that, they played [Monday] night, so they kind of had their legs under them a bit," Marchand said. "But we had a great first [period], we got a goal there early and kind of kept rolling from there. We outshot them by a lot, had some really good opportunities.
"[I] thought we had a really good game for first game back; just unfortunate for the way it kind of played out in the third. We've got to be a little better closing out games, but we got [one point] so we've got to continue to build and get ready for the next one."
Bergeron gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 9:49 of the first period. Marchand won a battle for a rebound off to the side of the net and set up Bergeron for a one-timer from the right face-off circle.

Morrissey's power-play goal tied it 1-1 at 13:53 of the first period, five seconds after Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo was whistled for cross-checking. Morrissey took a slap from the left point that found its way through traffic and past Halak.
Pastrnak responded with a power-play goal to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 18:33 of the first on a one-timer from the top of the left circle.
Hellebuyck made 18 saves in the first period, when Boston outshot Winnipeg 20-8.
"He was great," Jets coach Paul Maurice said of Hellebuyck. "He was the one rested guy we had in the lineup in a lot of ways."
Bergeron's second goal of the game tied it 3-3 at 11:39 of the third period. Marchand's pass to the front went off Connor's stick to Bergeron for a shot that beat Hellebuyck high. It was Bergeron's 16th of the season.

They said it

"I had a couple lucky ones tonight, I will say that. But you know what, the team played good in front of me, kept things to the outside. And I thought that was a good team effort." -- Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck
"Yeah, it was good. I mean, it was tough that we didn't get that extra point. But it was good. It was good to get my feet wet and it lived up to the hype, first NHL game … it was a lot of fun." -- Bruins forward Trent Frederic

Need to know

Jets forward Patrik Laine did not receive a shift for 12 minutes during the second period and finished with 10:55 of ice time. He has two goals and two assists in his past 17 games. … Wheeler (62 points; nine goals, 53 assists) and Scheifele (61 points; 25 goals, 36 assists) became the second set of teammates in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history to each have at least 60 points within the first 50 games of a season, and first since 2005-06 (Ilya Kovalchuk, Marc Savard and Marian Hossa). … Halak has lost his past four games (0-3-1). … Frederic became the fifth Bruins player to make his NHL debut this season, following defensemen Connor Clifton, Jeremy Lauzon, Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril.

What's next

Jets: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TSN3, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Bruins: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, NESN, NBCSP+, NHL.TV)