Hellebuyck’s Broadway performance backstops Jets to 4-1 win over Rangers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/02/2023 (932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK — Take a bow, Connor Hellebuyck. Your one-man show here under the bright lights of Broadway Monday night was an instant classic, the type of memorable performance that won’t soon be forgotten.

It certainly got a standing ovation from the rest of the Winnipeg Jets, who rode a 50-save performance from Hellebuyck — no, that’s not a typo — to a rather improbable 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Just another night at the office for the former Vezina Trophy winner, who is certainly making a case for an encore this season? Hardly.

“At this point, we’re just taking wins any way they come,” Hellebuyck said in the visitor’s dressing room inside the World’s Most Famous Arena, where he admits there’s always a little extra pep in the step.

“A little bit,” he said. “For me, I play this game because I love it. I don’t really care where it is. I just want to continue doing well and winning games.”

Indeed. Winnipeg snaps a two-game losing streak and improves to 35-21-1, moving just one point back of the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division. Both teams have 25 regular-season games remaining.

New York, which had been on a 8-0-2 run, falls to 33-15-9.

“Helly was outstanding. We needed that kind of performance from our goalie,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said of his club, which lost 3-1 in Columbus on Thursday and 4-2 in New Jersey on Sunday to begin this four-game road trip.

“You talk about timely saves, there were a lot of them tonight.”

Oh we’ll talk about it, coach, along with a few other things.

1) Here’s a heck of a stat. No goaltender in the NHL this season has faced as many as 30 shots from the slot, as Hellebuyck did on Monday. Or stopped as many as 29 of them, as he did. The only one that beat him came off the stick of Vincent Trocheck just past the midway mark of the second period.

At that point, Winnipeg’s lead was reduced to 3-1, but that’s as close as the home team would get.

“He was incredible. They’ve got a really potent offence and a lot of high end skill. They’re aggressive offensively. He was unbelievable and looked so solid in there,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey.

“I didn’t think anything was going to beat him clean. It was impressive. Everything was sticking to him..”

2) Hellebuyck also threw a wrench into the age-old mantra that a goaltender should never play in back-to-back games. After stopping 25 of 28 pucks in Newark on Sunday, he took his game to a whole new level 24 hours later.

“I don’t understand why they’re like that, but I understand it’s a long season and you have to use everyone and you want your back-up goaltender in a rhythm,” said Hellebuyck. “I always feel better in the second half, and I had some rest, so it was a perfect storm.”

It sure was, especially with no actual travel involved. Winnipeg is hunkered down in New York and didn’t switch hotels between games. Still, Hellebuyck admitted he would enjoy Tuesday’s day off.

“Yeah I’m exhausted. Now I have to take care of the body and get ready to go for the next one,” he said.

3) Winnipeg also got some timely scoring in this one. They fired only 21 shots at Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin, who is up there with Hellebuyck in the debate about best goaltender in the world.

And they managed to beat him four times. Go figure.

The big guns came out, with Pierre-Luc Dubois opening the scoring on the power-play at 5:12 of the first, (his 24th), Mark Scheifele adding to the lead with his team-leading 33rd at 16:32 of the opening frame, and Kyle Connor burying his 26th at 6:04 of the second to give the visitors a comfortable and much-needed lead.

Scheifele then finished off the scoring with a beautiful backhander with just under five minutes left in regulation to snuff out any hopes of a Rangers comeback. Connor also had a pair of assists on the night.

“They came through when we needed them most. They certainly did,” said Bowness. “We missed a breakaway, we had some other chances that were Grade As. We didn’t get a lot of them, but some of them were really good. He made some big saves. But we needed those goals to go in at the right time and they did tonight.”

4) Not to be outdone, Morrissey had himself quite a night. The Jets defenceman finally broke the franchise record for most points in a single-season by a blue-liner when his point shot was tipped by Dubois early in the game. Dustin Byfuglien had the prevoius high of 56.

He initially was given the goal, which then changed to a primary assist.

“It means a lot. It’s something that you’re kind of aware of the last couple weeks. I’m more worried about how we’re doing as a team and how we’re playing. But when you remove that and look at it, especially considering the relationship I had with Buff and him being my first partner when I came into the league,” said Morrissey.

“I credit a lot of the confidence I had early in my career to playing with him and his attitude. It definitely means a lot to me and it’s a function of opportunity and us having a great team and great players that make my job easy. Just have to get them the puck and good things happen.”

It was thought Morrissey might have the record in Columbus, only for an assist to be taken away. It was the same story in New Jersey, where a helper got deleted upon further review. Third time ended up being the charm.

“Once that one went in tonight, I was kind of like ‘is there any way that was offside or goalie interference or whatever.’ You never know,” Morrissey joked.

5) Winnipeg certainly upped the energy in this one, which Bowness had challenged his group to do after two lacklustre losses.

Neal Pionk and Brenden Dillon threw big early hits, and Gagner actually dropped the gloves for a short but spirited first period fight with Trocheck.

“We talked about it earlier today. We had to crank up our intensity. We had to start working a lot harder tonight. The guys responded,” said Bowness.

6) The Jets played this one without forward Cole Perfetti, who suffered an upper-body injury in the game against the Devils.

Bowness said the extent of the ailment is unknown pending further evaluation. He also couldn’t say if it was related to a previous shoulder injury suffered by Perfetti in late December that kept him out several weeks.

Perfetti, 21, has eight goals and 22 assists in 51 games this year, putting him among the NHL’s scoring leaders.

Gagner returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch.

Winnipeg did dodge a bit of a bullet when Nikolaj Ehlers was able to play in this one, one night after he left in the third period after getting tripped up by New Jersey’s Brendan Smith and hitting his head on the ice.

Bowness said he was in concussion evaluation but passed all tests and felt fine. He had an assist in the game.

UP NEXT: The road trip concludes on Wednesday night with the Jets visiting the New York Islanders.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg