Hellebuyck is back

Go figure that the deepest version of the Winnipeg Jets also happens to be the most dangerous.

That was on full display Friday night as a group we haven’t seen for quite a while — nearly two months in fact — rolled to a dominant 4-0 victory over the Dallas Stars at Canada Life Centre.

The best-of-seven second-round series between the Central Division rivals is now a best-of-five, tied 1-1 as it shifts to Dallas. Game 3 is Sunday afternoon, while Game 4 goes Tuesday night.

You have to go all the way back to March 11 to find the last time not a single Jets player was on the injured list. Defenceman Neal Pionk got hurt that night, and several other teammates have followed at various times since, including Gabe Vilardi, Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele.

The infirmary was emptied on Friday night, with everyone available to Jets coach Scott Arniel. The result was a club that reminded everyone how — and why — they won the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best regular season team and the William Jennings Trophy as the NHL’s stingiest.

“When you have your roster like that, everybody gets kind of aligned in their spots. Having your top-four defenceman. Having your top-six offensive guys. Then two checking lines, two heavy lines,” Arniel said of being back to full strength.

“We’re back to looking, finally, like we’ve looked for most of the season.”

It all starts with goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who responded to the usual pre-game chants of “MVP” by playing like one. He was terrific, including a handful of “how the heck did he do that?” stops that had all 15,225 fans inside the downtown rink on their feet.

“I thought the guys in front of me did a phenomenal job, just letting me see pucks and keeping the tips away, playing the rebounds,” said Hellebuyck. “It’s never just the goalie doing it; it’s everyone out there.”

Hellebuyck stopped all 21 pucks that came his way for his fourth career playoff shutout and his first since the 2021 pandemic-shortened season against the Edmonton Oilers.

“It is always great when you get the lead and just play your game and trust your game. That being said, it was a full 60 tonight,” said Hellebuyck. “We didn’t put the brakes on at all and couldn’t take a break, and I thought we did just that.”

From the goaltender on out, this was the desired response for a team that dropped Game 1 by a 3-2 score, surrendering home-ice advantage in the process. The Jets were the more desperate team, forcing Dallas to repeatedly chip and chase the puck rather than generating any kind of sustained offensive zone pressure or attack.

“We obviously wanted to have a better start and I thought our first period especially, we were a lot better tonight,” said Morrissey, who made his return after getting hurt in the first period of Game 7 last Sunday against the St. Louis Blues.

“We’re going to have to continue to build off those good starts. It was, overall, a pretty good game all around. We’re going to have to take that on the road.”

 

Look ma, no hands!

Vilardi had yet to make a mark on the playoffs, recording just one assist through his first four games. That’s not a knock on the player, but rather a reflection on the fact he was coming off a 17-game absence when he jumped into Game 5 of the first-round series against the St. Louis Blues.

“I said to him, he was on a bicycle jumping on an Indy track that is going 200 miles an hour,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said Friday morning of the sudden transition.

“So, now he knows the pace, now he knows what’s coming. You see it. He’s more and more comfortable making plays, he’s holding onto pucks. Getting around that net.”

That’s exactly where Vilardi was when he buried a feed from Ehlers 3:35 into the first period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. Veteran Dallas forward Tyler Seguin had caught Morrissey with a high stick just 17 seconds into the game, drawing blood and earning a four-minute penalty.

The Jets — with their top power play unit back intact for the first time since March 23 — quickly made them pay. A healthy Vilardi, who can be a net-front menace, is a great development for Winnipeg.

“The last two games have been much better than the first round,” said Vilardi. “It’s definitely tough to come in Game 5 when guys have been basically going to war for four games. But I knew that coming into that series. But I definitely feel more confident out there.”

Gotta be good to be lucky

Ehlers didn’t miss as much time as Vilardi — just seven total games, including the first five against the Blues — but he, too, had been fighting the puck at times.

Fortunately for the pending unrestricted free agent, he’s had a bit of good puck luck on his side as he gets back up to speed. In Game 7, for example, he whiffed on an initial shot attempt, which ultimately led to the sequence of incredible events that resulted in Cole Perfetti’s game-tying goal at 19:57 of the third period.

On Friday, it was a pass attempt that hit Dallas defenceman Esa Lindell’s skates and directed straight into the back of the Stars’ net.

They don’t ask how, just how many.

Ehlers’ fifth career playoff goal in his 41st career playoff game was a big one, giving the Jets a 2-0 lead at 7:07 of the opening frame.

Ehlers had several other great looks in what was easily the most complete game since his return. He then finished off his productive night with a long-distance empty-netter with just over three minutes left in the game.

“Just a phenomenal player,” Hellebuyck said of Ehlers. “He’s using his speed and thinking the game at a really high pace. He’s just a phenomenal player and it’s fun to watch when he really gets going.”

A determined Ehlers — who is not only playing for his current team but also his next contract — is a dangerous weapon for Winnipeg.

“Way better,” Ehlers said of the overall team game.

“We had talked about getting a better start than last game and I think everybody could see we were ready to go. First 30 minutes, I think we played a really good game, then we started playing a little different for the last 10 minutes of the second period and got back to it in the third. That’s something we obviously have to look at but I think overall, we played a really good game and Bucky made some great saves.”

The moose wasn’t loose

Mikko Rantanen began the night on an all-time heater, having been involved in 12 straight Dallas goals (either scoring them or assisting on them) to establish a new Stanley Cup playoff record.

But the man who scored all three goals by the visitors in Wednesday’s 3-2 Game 1 victory was held in check on this night. Sometimes literally, such as when Jets defenceman Neal Pionk put a big bear hug on the man known to teammates as “Moose” and wrestled him to the ice in the first period.

The Jets didn’t give him much time and space.

The shutdown line of Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton was in his face early and often and even managed to tilt the ice for a sustained stretch in the second period, which resulted in Lowry making it 3-0 for the Jets at 11:02.

It came after a lengthy offensive zone cycle shift, which began with the fourth line pinning Rantanen and company in their end.

“What set that up for me was our fourth line, the shift before. They had a great shift, and they stuck to, they hemmed Dallas, mostly their defence, in their end of the rink. We actually had all three forwards changed on the O-zone possession, and Lowry’s line got out there and finished the job off,” said Arniel.

“For me, that’s wearing teams down by being heavy and being relentless. That’s a big goal in the game. You’re up two and to get that third one takes a little bit of wind out of their sails.”

Rantanen took a high-sticking minor against Dylan Samberg late in the second, which ended up being his only notation on the gamesheet. He had just one shot on goal, two giveaways and one blocked shot in just over 21 minutes of ice time.

The good news for Rantanen? Since Dallas didn’t score at all, his streak of 12 remains intact.

 

Finger lickin’ good

Kyle Connor, who is often referred to by fans as KFC (short for Kyle “Frickin” Connor), was the subject of a funny cross-promotion on Friday night involving the fast food chain by the same name.

The first 10,000 fans entering the arena were given white buckets bearing Connor’s likeness — which bore a striking resemblance to Colonel Sanders — and a lookalike sitting in the crowd for good measure.

Not only that, but the KFC located at 1275 Portage Ave. has temporarily re-branded by replacing the usual logo with the Connor one.

Connor, who leads the Jets with 12 playoff points so far this spring, didn’t add to his tally.

 

Key play

Lowry’s goal midway through the second period felt like the dagger.

 

Three stars

1. WPG G Connor Hellebuyck: 21 save shutout.

2. WPG LW Nikolaj Ehlers: 2 goals, 1 assist

3. WPG C Adam Lowry: 1 goal

 

Extra, extra

Winnipeg went 1-for-5 on the power play and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, who was once again serenaded with “U.S. backup” chants by the Winnipeg crowd, stopped 21 of 24 shots he faced.

With so many healthy bodies now available, plenty of tough decisions had to be made by Arniel. Four skaters who have already appeared in the playoffs — forwards Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Dominic Toninato and David Gustafsson, and defenceman Luke Schenn — were all scratched, along with defenceman Ville Heinola, forward Rasmus Kupari and third-string goaltender Chris Driedger.

Dallas rolled the same lineup for a second straight game, meaning defenceman Miro Heiskanen did not return from a lengthy absence due to a knee injury. He could be an option as early as Sunday.

With the Jets’ victory, a Game 5 in Winnipeg is now guaranteed to take place on Thursday. No time has been released by the NHL.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg