Zach Aston-Reese, Sam Lafferty and Jake Guentzel each had two goals to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night.
Dominik Simon also scored and Aston-Reese also had an assist for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry stopped 27 shots.
Mathieu Perreault and Mark Scheifele had goals for the Jets, and Laurent Brossoit finished with 21 saves.
Both teams were playing back-to-back games and lacked zip in the first period. Perreault scored the opener at 1:47 when a centering puck he flipped in front of the Pittsburgh net glanced off a defender’s stick and past Jarry.
The celebration was short-lived as Aston-Reese tied it up a few minutes later when, as he was falling to the ice in front of the Winnipeg net, he slipped a loose rebound past Brossoit at 4:09 for his first goal of the season.
Guentzel scored on a power play at 7:50 of the second to give the Penguins the lead and then, just 41 seconds later, a puck bounced behind the net and back out right in front of Lafferty, who slammed it in to make it 3-1.
Scheifele narrowed it by backhanding a rebound past Jarry on a power play at the 10-minute mark but Simon restored the two-goal lead with 3 1/2 minutes left as his shot pinballed through traffic before ending up in the Jets’ net. It was also his first of the season.
The Jets seemed to find more steam at the start of the third after coach Paul Maurice made some line changes but couldn’t turn things around, striking out on their fourth power play.
Instead, Lafferty scored again at 9:32 when his shot glanced off Winnipeg defenseman Anthony Bittetto’s skate. Then Guentzel beat Brossoit for his second of the game and fourth of the season at with 8:20 left to make it 6-2.
Aston-Reese scored his second of the game short-handed on a breakaway just 7 seconds into a Winnipeg power play with 5:14 remaining.
NOTES: Winnipeg finished with a 29-28 advantage on shots on goal. … The Jets had less trouble on their first meeting this season with the Penguins, walking away from PPG Paints Arena with a 4-1 win last Tuesday. … Patrik Laine picked up an assist on Scheifele’s goal but he couldn’t score despite one great chance right in front of Jarry that went high.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host Colorado on Wednesday night.
Jets: Host Arizona in the second game of a six-game homestand.
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