Jets blank Canadiens 5-0

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This article was published 10/04/2021 (1618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Maurice has seen this movie before. It’s the one that suggests it’s going to take some other-worldly event to get a puck by his goaltender. And Connor Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, was locked and loaded and had “the look” going Saturday night.

“You get to a point in the game when he looks that way that I don’t think they’re going to beat him. I mean, we’re going to have to make a pretty egregious mistake here, because he’s just square to everything,” the Winnipeg Jets bench boss explained in his post-game Zoom availability from Bell Centre in Montreal.

The mistakes, egregious or otherwise, never materialized. And Hellebuyck turned aside all 19 pucks he faced to lead the Jets to a neat and tidy 5-0 victory over the Canadiens. It’s Hellebuyck’s second goose-egg of the season and 22nd of his career — but the first to occur in La Belle Province

“I think a shutout, no matter where it comes, is awesome, especially in this league. Most shutouts are a team shutout and (Saturday night) was no different. The guys are blocking shots and keeping them to the outside and letting me see the shots altogether and really applying the pressure in the O-zone. I thought we were a good team,” said Hellebuyck, who even got in a shot of his own on Montreal’s Corey Perry in the form of a third-period slash.

The veteran Perry, who may have accidentally on purpose fallen into Hellebuyck seconds earlier, ultimately got a 10-minute misconduct.

“He’s a pretty dirty player and he comes after the goalie, especially me quite a bit. He elbowed me earlier this season in the jaw and I didn’t like that one. He’s constantly putting his stick in my face, so I had enough,” the always candid Hellebuyck explained.

The Jets were skating for the final time before Monday’s NHL trade deadline in which general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is expected to throw a bone or two their way to bolster their chances of making some noise in the playoffs. They improve to 25-13-3 with its third straight win and now have a 10-point cushion on fourth-place Montreal, which falls to 17-12-9.

The Jets beat the Canadiens 4-2 on Thursday to kick off this five-game road trip, and are now 6-2-0 in head-to-head meetings this season.

Hellebuyck had plenty of help as a deep Jets club came to play, despite missing captain Blake Wheeler for a second straight contest as he battles a concussion. Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp and Mathieu Perreault each had a goal and an assist, while Paul Stastny and Derek Forbort had the other tallies. Winnipeg connected twice on five power play chances, while killing off all three minors they took.

“The lines were right. I didn’t think we forced plays offensively, which was part of the rush chances that we gave up last game, we seemed to be forcing some plays that we didn’t need to. You know what, I thought we just played a pretty hard and pretty smart game here,” said Maurice.

It was a safe and somewhat sleepy first period between both teams, with just 11 combined shots and no goals. But Winnipeg took over in the middle frame. Stastny opened the scoring at 10:13, taking advantage of a ghastly giveaway from Montreal defenceman Jeff Petry to score his 12th of the year.

Ehlers made it 2-0 at 16:57, but not without some controversy. His point shot beat Jake Allen, who was screened by Perreault on the power play. Montreal challenged for goaltender interference, and replays showed Perreault grazing Allen’s glove. But the goal, the 17th of the year for Ehlers, was upheld following a lengthy video review, with officials deeming the contact incidental and outside the crease.

“At first I didn’t even know that I had touched him. I’m just coming across the crease but I’m not in the crease, I’m just on top of the crease and he kind of extends his arm out so I think that’s just kind of what the ruling was, I’m assuming that I’m entitled to that ice and I just screened him so he didn’t see it and it went in,” Perreault explained.

Although Montreal survived the automatic delay-of-game penalty for the failed challenge, they had no answer for Forbort who wired a beautiful shot off the bar and in at 3-0. It’s the second of the year for the rugged, stay-at-home defenceman.

“Forbs with an absolute snipe,” said Copp.

The lead increased to 4-0 at 7:17 of the third period, as Perreault fed Copp in the slot just seven seconds into a power play. Copp continues to add to his career-high offensive totals, now with 14 goals on the year.

“It’s actually something we haven’t really connected on yet this year. With the way that they kill, that d-man comes up there on Nikky (Ehlers) pretty hard, just because of how lethal his shot is, as you obviously saw in the second period – we have had a lot of goals from there,” said Copp.

“So getting in behind that D and kind of finding that soft spot, great pass by Frenchie and I was able to bury it. So we are trying to diversify our looks as much as possible to give the other teams a lot to look at; we are executing pretty well right now.”

Indeed, that second power play unit connected for both power play goals Saturday, and Maurice suggested it would ignite an internal debate in the coming days.

“That unit might have drawn even at five-on-four with the first unit. There will be a substantial argument tomorrow and the next day about which unit, in fact, is the first unit,” said Maurice.

Perreault finished off the scoring at 10:42, burying a glaring giveaway by Montreal’s Shea Weber for his eighth of the year.

The Jets now head to Ottawa to continue the road trip with games on Monday and Wednesday, then finish off in Toronto on Thursday. After that, it’s home for nine of the final 12 games. That includes two re-scheduled contests against the Vancouver Canucks, which were supposed to be played this past week. They’ve now been moved to May 10 and May 11 at Bell MTS Place.

The regular-season was supposed to end May 9, but has now been extended an extra week to allow the Canucks to make up games that have been scrubbed due to a massive COVID-19 outbreak. It’s possible the other three divisions may actually start the playoffs while the all-Canadian group is still finishing, but that hasn’t been determined yet.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg