ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Winnipeg Jets lost leading scoring Kyle Connor to a knee injury in the second period when he took a knee from Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Strome in a 4-2 victory for the visiting team.
Strome received a game misconduct after the infraction, which did not sit well with the Jets. Connor, 27, has 17 goals and 28 points and is well on his way toward an All-Star season.
“It’s knee on knee. (Strome) sticks his knee out there and hopefully that’s suspendible,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “Knee on knee, there is no other way to look at that. The referees made the correct call: five-minute major, a game misconduct and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Jets coach Rick Bowness said the extent of Connor’s knee injury is not known and the forward will be examined when the team gets to San Jose in advance of a game against the Sharks on Tuesday.
“You don’t touch any of our guys, especially like that,” Jets forward Mark Scheifele said. “We definitely didn’t like the hit. To see K.C. down like that, he doesn’t wince like that very often.”
Gabriel Vilardi broke a tie with 1:42 left with the third, one of four third-period goals en route to the win. The Jets have won four straight and nine of 12, while the Ducks have dropped three in a row and 12 of 13.
“That’s what good teams do, I think,” Vilardi said of the comeback after the Winnipeg offense was in stall mode through two periods. “You have to keep going. We had (five) power plays and nothing was going (in). A lot of teams would just hang their heads. … We just kept battling and got some greasy goals and that’s what it takes sometimes to win.”
Nino Niederreiter and Morgan Barron also scored, Scheifele added an empty-netter with 29 seconds remaining and Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves for the Jets.
Vilardi scored his first goal of the season. His shot from the top of the left circle trickled past goalie John Gibson to give the Jets a 3-2 lead.
“It definitely felt good; there was some relief to that, I feel like,” Vilardi said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself and it was nice to get that one.”
During his postgame availability, Vilardi expressed concern for Connor, who has topped 20 goals in six straight seasons, and finished last season with 80 points.
“I feel for him. It was his knee, obviously,” Vilardi said. “So, it’s tough. It’s never easy coming back from injury. I think people that don’t play really realize that.”
Alex Killorn and Adam Henrique scored for Anaheim, and John Gibson made 27 saves for the hosts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.