Patrik Laine scored two goals in a six-minute span of the second period, and Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists as the Winnipeg Jets swamped the Dallas Stars 5-3 on Saturday at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas.

The Jets won for the sixth time in eight games and pulled into a tie with the idle Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division. Winnipeg is 4-0-1 in its past five road games and has beaten Dallas seven straight times, including three times this season by a combined score of 14-5.

Dallas is 2-4-0 in its past six games and have just eight goals in that span (including being shut out twice). The Stars remained one point behind Minnesota for third place in the Central Division and two points ahead of St. Louis for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Dallas got the scoring started just 10 seconds into the match when Tyler Pitlick swooped in and wristed a top-shelf shot past Winnipeg goalkeeper Michael Hutchinson. Radek Faksa, who won a draw in the offensive zone to set up the goal, earned an assist on the score.

The second period belonged to the Jets, who scored five unanswered goals to take an overwhelming lead.

First Nikolaj Ehlers corralled a drop pass from Dustin Byfuglien and fired in a slap shot through a screen to beat Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen to tie the game 49 seconds into the period.

Byfuglien also had a hand in Winnipeg's second goal, making the first pass on a play that ended with a Toby Enstrom goal that found its way between leg pads of Lehtonen at the 6:33 mark of the period. Jack Roslovic also got an assist on the tally.

Mark Scheifele added to the lead with 12:01 to play in the period with a power-play goal after assists by Blake Wheeler and Byfuglien, who finished with three assists.

Laine scored Winnipeg's next two goals, first with 8:01 remaining in the period off assists from Ehlers and Hutchinson and then with 1:13 left after another assist by Ehlers.

The Stars finally showed some life as Tyler Seguin netted a goal with 33 seconds left in the second period with help from passes from Alexander Radulov and Jamie Benn, allowing Dallas to cut the lead to 5-2 and take some modicum of momentum into the locker room for the second intermission.

Radulov added a garbage-time goal with 47 seconds remaining but it was far too little, too late for Dallas.

Winnipeg heads home for a match Tuesday vs. Nashville while the Stars continue with the second contest of a five-game homestand when they host Calgary, also on Tuesday.

--Field Level Media