NEW YORK– The Winnipeg Jets are the first NHL team to post 15 wins in their first 16 games as their focus group continues to preach the “one game at a time” mantra.

Timely goals and stellar goaltending came to the fore as the Jets defeated the New York Rangers 6-3 Tuesday evening. Winnipeg leads the league with a franchise record 73 goals in 16 games.

“We know what we’re doing, but we don’t pay too much attention to it. We just move on to the next one,” Jets forward Kyle Connor said. “It speaks to leaders about not getting too comfortable. There is still a lot of season left.

Connor and Mark Scheifele each scored twice Tuesday as the Jets also won their seventh straight road game. They are the last undefeated road team in the NHL.

The Jets have a Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender in Connor Hellebuyck, who is 12-1-0 this season with three shutouts. Winnipeg’s balanced attack also has 11 players with at least 10 points. Connor leads with 22 points, including 11 goals. Scheifele is next with 21 points, including nine goals.

The Jets opened with eight straight wins under coach Scott Arniel, lost 6-4 to Toronto at home on October 28 and have now scored seven more victories.

“You would never have written it that way,” Arniel said of the Jets’ record. “We talked about it at the start of the season, taking points in a tough division in a tough Western Conference. The guys definitely deserved every inch of it.

Against Rangers – last season The winners of the Presidents’ Trophy – the Jets also got three assists from former Rangers defenseman Neal Pionk and two assists from Nikolaj Ehlers and an insurance goal from another former Rangers Vladislav Namestnikov.

“We had some good setbacks that turned into opportunities the other way, and we made them pay,” said Scheifele, who opened the scoring just 57 seconds into Madison Square Garden, then added his second goal of the game at 1:08 of the third. “Playing with good players, going to the right places and supporting each other well – good things will happen.”

Arniel, a former Rangers assistant coach when Alain Vigneault was behind New York’s bench, relished the opportunity to record another key victory against a tough opponent as the Jets began a three-game road trip against elite opponents of the Eastern Conference. The Jets will visit the reigning Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers later this week.

“This league is all about pressure and when you are good at it you can make it difficult for the opposition,” Arniel said. “The biggest thing for our group is we did a great job with the resets.”

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