Hellebuyck stuns Avs top guns again

Nathan MacKinnon has seen this Connor Hellebuyck movie before. Cale Makar and Devon Toews, too.

A dominant performance from the Olympic gold-medal goaltender powered the Winnipeg Jets to a surprising 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon at Canada Life Centre.

Hellebuyck stopped 28 of the 29 shots as the Jets handed the NHL’s No. 1 team just its 12th regulation loss of the season.

MacKinnon, Makar and Toews were all members of the Canadian team that had to settle for silver last month in Milan — undone in large part by Hellebuyck’s heroics and Jack Hughes’ overtime winner.

The stakes weren’t nearly as high this time, even though the end result was familiar.

Hellebuyck’s latest highlight reel includes an outstanding third-period stop on Toews, who may have experienced a case of deja vu — the Avalanche defenceman was robbed by Hellebuyck’s paddle in Italy in what became a signature save of the best-on-best tournament.

“It was great. I was able to see pucks and the rebounds were staying in front of me and they were cleaning them really well,” said Hellebuyck, who was making his season-high eighth straight start in net.

“When you have everything to the outside and shot lanes that you see, it’s a pretty easy job out there.”

The reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy also got a helping hand from a couple teammates — Dylan DeMelo made a sprawling block in the crease while Gabe Vilardi likely stole a goal from Brett Kulak by lifting his stick at the last minute.

“(DeMelo) wants to come into our goalie video session tomorrow so he can work on his craft a little more, his goaltending craft,” joked Hellebuyck. “No, it’s great. It shows how much mini-sticks he’s been playing lately.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Avalanche had 18 high-danger chances to just two for the Jets. Yet the only puck to beat Hellebuyck came on a 6-on-5 late in the third period, when Makar and MacKinnon set up Marty Necas for a perfect one-timer.

The Jets, who were coming off a pair of uninspiring losses to the Anaheim Ducks and lowly New York Rangers, improve to 27-28-10 on the year, including 4-2-0 on this season-long eight-game homestand. The victory moves them to within five points of the final Western Conference wildcard spot, pending other results on Saturday night.

“If we play like this, we got a shot,” said Hellebuyck. “Now we just got to bring consistency and, you know, put that same effort on the ice every night and see what happens.”

Colorado falls to 44-12-9. The Jets and Avalanche will face each other two more times this season — March 26 in Winnipeg and March 28 in Denver.

“I thought we were competitive on pucks. We knew that with their talent and skill, and they come in with speed, we did a really good job of protecting the guts of the ice,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel.

“There were a couple of breakdowns, but Hellebuyck was there for those. At the end of the day, I thought we did a really good job managing the game. Doing a good job of getting our five above their five and for the most part we did a strong job of that.”

Top line shines

Winnipeg’s offence came from a familiar place on Saturday.

That would be the top line, which has largely carried the team in that department this season. Specifically the duo of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, who seemingly can do no wrong regardless of whether Vilardi or, as was the case against the Avalanche, Alex Iafallo is on the right-wing.

Connor gave the Jets a 1-0 lead early in the second period when he took a pass from Scheifele — who intercepted a MacKinnon drop pass in the neutral zone — and ripped a shot past Mackenzie Blackwood for his 30th of the season.

Connor, who was on the gold medal team with Hellebuyck but was a healthy scratch for the final four games in Milan, is the picture of consistency. He’s now hit at least 30 goals in eight of his nine full NHL seasons. The only time he didn’t was during the 2020-21 campaign, which was shortened to just 56 games due to the pandemic. (He still has 26 that year).

“I don’t know if everybody around North America recognizes what a great goal-scorer he is,” said Arniel.

“He has an unbelievable release, and he has a knack for finding that open ice, and him and Scheifele with their chemistry, that puck comes off his stick in a hurry. It doesn’t take much, he just needs a lane to get that shot off. From my history here, the four years, if you watch him in practice or you watch him in games, he is a pure goal-scorer.”

Next up was Iafallo, who took a slap shot from Scheifele to the mid-section, then spun around and buried the loose puck for his 11th of the year at 11:52 of the middle frame. Connor also had a helper on the goal, which turned out to be the game-winner.

The assist by Scheifele moves him to 51 on the year, which eclipses the career-high of 50 he had in 2016-17. Scheifele is also up to 81 points, just six away from his career-high he set last year. With 17 regular-season games remaining, he seems likely to set a new benchmark.

“He’s so dialed in and he studies the game so well and he works so hard at it,” Hellebuyck said of Scheifele.

“Even over (the Olympic) break, he never got off the ice. He was on the ice the entire time just working on his craft. The way he sees the game and the vision he has and the control he has on both his forehand and his backhand, it’s just bar none.”

Praise for Perfetti

Another notable development Saturday was seeing young forward Cole Perfetti given the task of trying to shut down the mighty Avalanche late in the game with his team clinging to a one-goal lead.

Yet there he was, immediately after the Necas goal at 18:44 — and Perfetti rewarded his head coach for the leap of defensive faith.

Perfetti stripped MacKinnon of the puck in Winnipeg’s end, then fired a long-range missile into the empty net to seal the victory.

His ninth of the season was nearly followed by his 10th, as Perfetti hit the post on another empty-net bid as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

“I thought Cole earned the opportunity to be there,” said Arniel, who couldn’t help but take a playful shot while handing out praise.

“I can’t believe he didn’t get two.”

Key play

Iafallo’s rebound goal just past the midway mark of the second period gave the Jets a bit more breathing room and ended up being the game-winner.

Three stars

1. WPG Connor Hellebuyck: 28 saves

2. WPG LW Kyle Connor: 1 goal, 1 assist

3. WPG C Mark Scheifele: 2 assists

Extra, extra

A crowd of 14,756 took in the matinee.

Winnipeg failed to convert on its one power play opportunity, but they managed to kill off both minor penalties they took against Colorado.

Ville Heinola was the lone healthy scratch for the Jets.

Veteran defenceman Brent Burns dressed for a 990th straight game on Saturday, which moved him past Keith Yandle and into second place all-time on the NHL “ironman” list. Burns, 41, now trails only the retired Phil Kessel, who played in 1,064 straight games.

The Jets don’t have much time to savour this victory — they’ll host the surging St. Louis Blues on Sunday (2 p.m CT). Winnipeg then wraps the homestand on Tuesday night against the Nashville Predators.

Is Hellebuyck expecting to make a ninth straight start?

“I hope not,” he replied.

“One night off, give Coms (Eric Comrie) one. He’s been working so hard, he earned it.”

www.winnipegfreepress.com/mikemcintyre