Bryan Little scored twice in the third period as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Friday.

Blake Wheeler had a goal and two assists for the Jets (28-26-6), who won back-to-back games for the first time this season. Alexander Burmistrov also scored.

"You know with back-to-back games, it’s been a real test for us and now we’re obviously in a dog fight for our lives, so to come out tonight and beat a team of Boston’s caliber, it’s a huge feather in our cap," Wheeler said.

The Jets are still in 10th place due to a Washington win on Friday, but both teams closed the gap on eighth place Toronto (See standings fullbar below).

Jordan Caron and David Krejci scored for Boston (35-19-2), while Tuukka Rask finished with 21 saves.

"Yeah I think we’ve seen Tuukka better and you know guys everybody has to be better, OK, and the goaltender is the easiest one to criticize because he’s the last guy standing there," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "So yeah, our goalies can be better, as the rest of the team can be."

Boston is struggling offensively, scoring just 13 goals in the last eight games.

After a shootout win in Minnesota on Thursday, the Jets went into Friday having failed to win both of back-to-back games in nine tries this season.

It didn't seem promising they would snap that streak for the first 20 minutes, as the Stanley Cup champs peppered Winnipeg netminder Ondrej Pavelec.

But Pavelec made key save after key save, even though the Jets were outskated, outchecked and outshot 13-4.

It was Burmistrov who scored first with Winnipeg's fifth shot of the game less than two minutes into the second. He fired a clean wrist shot from the right face-off circle that handcuffed Rask.

"I’m not so happy about the second one because it went through me, but the first one it wasn’t the hardest shot ever but it caught me in a good spot," said Rask. "You know, I made a wrong save selection there, I probably should have used my shoulder but give credit to him for a pretty good shot."

But less that five minutes later Caron returned the favour and sent one high into the Winnipeg net that Pavelec never touched.

Winnipeg shut the Bruins down on their first power-play opportunity on an elbowing call against Evander Kane in the second.

The Bruins didn't get off a shot.

Then half a minute into full-strength Wheeler slammed home a drop pass from Dustin Byfuglien to put the Jets ahead again 2-1.

It was a starkly different period for Boston, with Winnipeg holding a 9-8 edge on shots and no longer struggling to get the puck out of their zone.

But less than a minute into the third, Krejci picked up a pass from Tyler Seguin in front of the Winnipeg net, as Pavelec went down and the puck went up and in.

Little scored the go-ahead goal at 4:16 of third and gave Winnipeg some insurance with his second two minutes later. Both goals were assisted by Wheeler.

"There was a lot of good performances from a lot of players, pretty much everybody made a contribution," Jets coach Claude Noel said. "I thought Little’s line with Ladd and Wheeler was very good and really carried the offense. I thought they played with a lot of heart, as our whole team did. It was really nice to see us play that way … in back-to-back games."

Winnipeg had a brief 4-on-3 in the third but also failed to connect.

Both teams went 0-2 on power-play chances.

The Bruins announced earlier in the day that Rich Peverley will be out at least four weeks with a knee sprain.