Sometimes you need your goalie to bail you out of trouble. Good thing the Winnipeg Jets have the best goalie in the NHL.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 43 0f 44 shots as the Jets picked up a 4-1 win in Minnesota on Monday night to improve to 18-4 on the season.
The Jets weathered an early storm from the Wild as Hellebuyck was brilliant in making 38 saves over the first two periods in a showdown of the top two teams in the NHL’s overall standings.
Alex Iafallo scored twice for Winnipeg. Nino Niederreiter added a second period tally and Adam Lowry sealed the deal with an empty netter, but it was the Vezina caliber goaltending that led to the two points for Winnipeg as they bounced back from Saturday’s loss to Nashville.
“We were feeling out our game a little bit and making, maybe a few mistakes not getting the puck deep enough,” said Hellebuyck. “We righted our wrong in that third period and we were just phenomenal in the third period. We got right back to our game.”
It was just the fourth regulation loss for Minnesota all season.
They outshot the Jets 22-7 in the first period and the 39 shots surrendered by the Jets in the first two periods is the most in franchise history.
“Obviously we got to work on some things,” said Iafallo. “But going forward it’s a big win for us and especially on the road. Finishing off that third period is huge for us and building that momentum of hard plays and doing it right to the end.”
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Despite the wide margin in shots on goal, Jets head coach Scott Arniel didn’t think it was as lopsided as the shots reflected.
“I think the shot guy fell asleep on the button,” joked Arniel. “The first period, it felt more like a feeling out. They probably had the upper-hand. I thought in the second we started to get going where we weren’t very good in Nashville in the second. I thought we did a better job of kinda being heavy. They were gonna gets some looks, but I thought we did a good job of every time we got the puck below the goal line, our offence got going, and we got some zone time.”
Ville Heinola appeared in his first NHL game in more than 22 months after Dylan Samberg suffered a broken foot blocking a shot in the Jets previous outing.
“There was a lot of things I liked,” said Arniel. “He has patience and poise, we know that, especially on the breakouts, things like that. I think that there’s a couple things where the speed, he kinda recognized that they’re coming in a hurry. But at the end of the day, that’s what we want. We want to get his feet wet.”
Like he did when the two teams met in Winnipeg last month, Jake Middleton opened the scoring for the Wild, banging home a rebound at the 8:37 mark of the opening period.
The Jets answered back less than 90 seconds later thanks to their fourth line. Rasmus Kupari won a puck battle in the corner and fed Iafallo in front, who buried a hard backhand past Filip Gustavsson at the 10:03 mark.
Minnesota had the bulk of the good chances as the period wore along but Hellebuyck stood tall, turning aside 19 of 20 shots faced while the Jets mustered nine on goal in the first.
The Wild continued to pour shots on Hellebuyck in the second but it was Winnipeg who grabbed the lead 12:05 into the middle frame.
After Hellebuyck turned aside another top notch opportunity from Minnesota, the Jets broke up the ice 4-on-3 as two members of the Wild got tied up with Iafallo behind the Jets’ net. Eventually, the puck wound up on the stick of Neal Pionk before he slid a perfect pass to Niederreiter, who roofed a backhand past Gustavsson to put the Jets ahead 2-1.
Winnipeg certainly had more life in the second period, especially after they scored but they were still outshot 17-13 for a two-period total of of 39-20 in Minnesota’s favour.
But in the third, the Jets put the clamps down on the Wild, allowing just two shots over the first 14 minutes before Winnipeg picked up an insurance marker on the power play.
With the second unit on the ice, Iafallo tipped a Pionk point shot that Gustavsson caught a piece of but not enough as it fell into the net to give Winnipeg a 3-1 lead. The goal was the 100th of Iafallo’s career.
Minnesota pulled the goalie with just under three minutes left but couldn’t muster much of a push before Lowry iced it with an empty net goal with just over a minute to play.
Winnipeg will now head further west to visit the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday night. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starts at 7 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 9 p.m.