Morgan Barron had a goal and an assist for the visiting Winnipeg Jets in a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.
Barron came into the contest with two points in 23 NHL games.
Paul Stastny, Evgeny Svechnikov and Adam Lowry also scored, Dylan Samberg had two assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets (35-28-11, 81 points), who moved within five points of the Dallas Stars for the second wild card from the Western Conference.
Winnipeg has eight games remaining and the Stars have 10 games left, but none against the Jets.
Joel Armia and Josh Anderson scored, and Sam Montembeault made 31 saves for the Canadiens (20-42-11, 51 points), the last-place team in the Eastern Conference.
Svechnikov ended a 20-game drought when he scored off a rush with 8:59 left to give the Jets a 3-2 lead.
Lowry scored into an empty net to make it 4-2 with 1:29 left.
After a scoreless first period, the Canadiens took a 1-0 lead 29 seconds into the second on a goal by Armia.
Hellebuyck threw out his left arm and made a save on Christian Dvorak, but the puck popped in the air and was about to land in front of the crease when Armia backhanded it into the net for his sixth goal of the season.
The Jets tied it 1-1 at 1:46 of the second on Barron’s first goal of the season.
Nikolaj Ehlers entered the Canadiens zone with speed before leaving the puck for Barron in the left circle. He scored on a wrist shot for his second NHL goal and first since he was acquired from the New York Rangers on March 21 in a deal that sent Andrew Copp to New York.
Winnipeg moved ahead 2-1 at 4:00 of the second.
Barron caused Montreal defenseman Rem Pitlick to fall to the ice with a move in the left circle and then fed Stastny for the one-timer.
Anderson scored the 100th goal of his NHL career on a slap shot from just inside the blue line to tie the score 2-2 at 6:19 of the third period.
–Field Level Media