How many U’s in Stuuuuuuu…?

Stuart Skinner is giving the hometown crowd plenty to cheer about.

The Winnipeg Jets new No. 1 netminder came up with another brilliant performance, making 32 saves — including several of the highlight-reel variety — to propel his team to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre.

With each save he makes and each win he records, Skinner is doing what he can to help turn the page on the Connor Hellebuyck era.

“I would say that they are big shoes to fill 100 per cent, but I’m not looking into the scenario of filling his shoes,” said Skinner, who lowered his goals-against average to 2.62 and raised his save percentage to .920 through three starts. “My job’s the same job as any other goalie in this league. So it’s a little bit of a difficult question for me to truly answer.”

Roars of Stuuuuu echoed through the building with great frequency, but reached a fever pitch when Skinner robbed Martin Necas on two occasions: once during a power play in the first period and again in the second when he sprawled to reach across and get his glove on a glorious rebound chance.

“He just doesn’t seem really fazed by anything,” said Jets left-winger Kyle Connor, who scored the game-winning goal with a minute left in regulation time. “He’s just so calm in the net. He takes up a lot of the net. The game comes to him easily, he reads the play so well. It gives us a lot of confidence.”

The Jets, who improved to 3-0-1, are back in action on Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks.

“Just the fashion that we’re able to win games, that shows the character in this room,” said Skinner. “It shows a lot of character, but a lot of experience as well. It’s been a lot of fun seeing how these guys battle every night.”

Let’s take a closer look at what went down in this one:

Staying hot

Connor continues to pace the offensive attack, scoring two more goals for five goals and seven points in four games.

Connor’s decisive marker was a thing of beauty as he corralled a crisp, cross-ice feed from Mark Scheifele in the high slot and unloaded a quick wrister that found the back of the net.

“I’d like to say I was surprised, but he does it so often. That’s a top tier play,” said Connor. “I don’t know that a lot of guys can do that in the league. He’s done it so often. I just know that in the back of my mind, I’ve just always got to be ready. He almost has a sixth sense of knowing where I’m at, at all times and trusting him and being in a shooter position and being ready. He threaded the needle and all I needed to do was put it in.”

After doing a lot of damage on the power play in the first two games, the Jets’ top trio scored all three goals in this one at even strength.

Scheifele had his first two assists of the season, while Cole Perfetti is providing excellent support since his promotion to the top line, chipping in his third goal and sixth point in four games.

For the sake of comparison, Perfetti didn’t record his third goal last season until his 27th game (which came on Jan. 6).

The play of the top line has been critical in the Jets early-season success.

‘Every superstar has a different way of playing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one guy is better than the other,” said Skinner. “The way that I see our top line taking care of their business is impressive. They’re able to stay calm within the chaos, make plays in big times. You saw it with a minute left.”

The injury

The Jets lost star defenceman Josh Morrissey early in the second period with a suspected right wrist or hand injury.

In the waning seconds of the second period, Morrissey went to hit Avalanche forward T.J. Hughes and seemed to jam his hand into the glass.

Replays showed Morrissey grimacing as he made his way off the ice, but it seemed like a potential crisis may have been averted when he came back out to start the second. However, Morrissey went down the tunnel for further evaluation after his lone shift of the period and didn’t return.

Arniel didn’t sound overly concerned about the severity of the injury, though more tests may be required.

“We’ll check on it (Thursday) and see how it is,” he said.

With the Jets down to five blue-liners for the better part of the final two periods, four of those D-men were north of 20 minutes of ice time.

Dylan Samberg led the way with 29 shifts for 25:25 of ice time and also chipped in two assists, five hits and one blocked shot.

“Under the circumstances, that was one of his better games,” said Arniel. “He was really involved in a lot. He saw an awful lot of (Nathan MacKinnon) out there, almost matched up every shift against him. That’s a handful right there.

“We need Sammy to be that every night. He did a great job.”

The key play

Scheifele found Connor in the slot for the game-winning goal with one minute left in regulation time.

THE THREE STARS

1. Stuart Skinner, Jets: 32 saves.
2. Kyle Connor, Jets: two goals.
3. Dylan Samberg, Jets: two assists, five hits, 25:05 of ice time.

The decision

Arniel has often mentioned how difficult the discussions are when letting players — especially veterans — know that they will be a healthy scratch on a particular night.

He’s now done that with veteran winger Nino Niederreieter for consecutive games after the Swiss forward was held without a shot or shot attempt the first two games of the season.

“Those are hard conversations. As a head coach, those aren’t the ones you look forward to,” said Arniel. “But at the end of the day, he’s handled it professionally.”

Niederreiter has been stuck on 499 career points since Jan. 27, when he scored the game-winning goal against the New Jersey Devils. A knee injury limited him to 12 games in that span.

Extra, extra!

Jets captain Adam Lowry went 14-9 in the faceoff circle and his line helped keep MacKinnon off the scoresheet, limiting the Avalanche centre to one shot on goal (and seven shot attempts). The Jets other healthy scratches were defencemen Tyrel Bauer and Haydn Fleury.

winnipegfreepress.com/kenwiebe