Hellebuyck perfect as Jets overcome slow start to beat Vegas 4-0 – Winnipeg

When the Winnipeg Jets completely wanted it most, Connor Hellebuyck delivered a classic efficiency, stopping all 42 pictures he confronted in a 4-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday night time.

The sport bought off to a really related begin as their assembly per week in the past in Winnipeg when it took the Jets 12:26 to register a shot on purpose, resulting in a notable Bronx cheer from the house crowd.

This time, it took the Jets 15:04, main the gang to ship a raucous mock cheer, however like final week, Hellebuyck made quite a lot of key saves within the opening 20 minutes to maintain Vegas off the board.

The Jets have been outshot 17-4 within the goalless first, and Vegas stored the pedal down to start out the second, hemming the Jets in their very own finish for lengthy intervals of time.

William Provider had a beautiful likelihood to open the scoring when Hellebuyck left his crease to play a puck that he by no means bought to. Provider was fed the puck within the slot however he whiffed on a one-timer try, sending the puck fluttering harmlessly over the empty internet.

Simply previous the 5:30 mark of the second, newly-acquired Jet Zach Sanford drew a holding penalty, sending Winnipeg to its second energy play of the night time.

A centering cross off the stick of Blake Wheeler hit a physique and careened towards Vegas goalie Logan Thompson. Thompson caught out his pad to cease the preliminary redirection however Pierre-Luc Dubois banged dwelling the rebound for his twenty fifth purpose of the season.

The purpose got here on Winnipeg’s seventh shot of the night time after Hellebuyck had already made 22 saves.

Three minutes later, it appeared the Jets had taken a 2-0 lead when Evgeny Svechnikov completed off an odd-man rush by firing one over the blocker of Thompson. Vegas challenged the play, nonetheless, and video replay confirmed that Dubois was millimetres offside.

Svechnikov then took a slashing penalty on the following face-off, and whereas the Golden Knights didn’t rating on the facility play, they got here shut as Chandler Stephenson rang a shot off the put up.

The Jets doubled the lead when a Nikolaj Ehlers level shot was tipped in Mark Scheifele for his twenty fourth of the season, capping off an extended shift within the Vegas finish.

Each groups managed to get 11 pictures on purpose within the second.

The Jets endured a scare within the third when Dylan DeMelo blocked a shot and remained down for quite a lot of seconds earlier than very slowly making his method to the bench. He went to the locker room however solely missed a few shifts earlier than returning to motion.

Neal Pionk would give his workforce an insurance coverage marker whereas the groups have been taking part in 4-on-4, ripping a one-timer previous Thompson off an incredible feed from Kyle Connor.

Lower than three minutes later, the dagger got here from a incredible deflection by Ehlers. The Dane was tied up whereas driving to the online, however with one hand on his stick managed to get sufficient on a agency cross from Scheifele to ship it by Thompson.

The one factor left to find out within the waning minutes was whether or not Hellebuyck would choose up his fourth shutout of the season, which he did as Vegas didn’t actually threaten to attain close to the tip.

The stellar efficiency ended a run of 11 straight begins for Hellebuyck permitting three or extra objectives.

Winnipeg will look to win a 3rd straight recreation when the Senators come to city Thursday night time.