Hellebuyck steals the show

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This article was published 25/11/2024 (309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — How good was Connor Hellebuyck on Monday night? The architect of the team he’d just stonewalled for 60 minutes made his way over to personally congratulate him outside the Winnipeg Jets locker room.

Yeah, it was that kind of game for Hellebuyck — the reigning Vezina Trophy winner who stopped 43 of 44 shots he faced to lead his club to a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild inside Xcel Energy Center.

To be clear, Wild general manager Bill Guerin was wearing his Team USA hat, rather than that of Winnipeg’s closest divisional rival. No doubt he can’t wait to have him as a friend, rather than a foe, for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off in which Hellebuyck is certain to be the starter.

“Definitely toe saves. My toe was hot. My glove was hot. I felt good,” Hellebuyck told the Free Press of what went right. “I was seeing (the puck). The guys were allowing me to see lanes and picking up sticks and picking up rebounds. Great team effort tonight.”

As for the Jets, they will make no apologies for employing the best goalie on the planet. Nor should they. They will acknowledge that in a game where they were far from their best — especially during a first period in which they surrendered 22 shots — another out-of-this-world performance from Hellebuyck was the difference.

“It’s a big, big step, but obviously we got to work on some things,” said Jets forward Alex Iafallo, who scored the 99th and 100th goals of his NHL career to lead the way offensively.

Winnipeg improves to an NHL-best 18-4-0, including 2-1-0 on this season-long six-game road trip. Minnesota, which began the night second overall in league standings, falls to 13-4-4.

Was it that lopsided?

The shot clock read 22-7 through 20 minutes, which suggests the Jets were hanging by a thread and fortunate to escape in a 1-1 tie.

Head coach Scott Arniel believes looks can be deceiving.

“I think the shot guy fell asleep on the button,” he joked.

“Minnesota, they throw a lot of pucks to the net front. I mean, we went and looked at our scoring chances and it certainly didn’t reflect what all of the shots that were coming. But they are a team that likes to throw pucks there, with bodies around there. I thought we did do a really good job there of finding a lot of the rebounds and kind of clearing them out.”

That said, there’s no denying Hellebuyck had to be sharp early and often, and he had already faced 39 shots through 40 minutes. However, with a 2-1 lead heading into the final frame, the Jets held the Wild to five shots in the third period.

“I like that third period a lot,” said Hellebuyck. “We got back to our game and we really shut them down and kept them out of it. We kept them from getting any good looks and kept the momentum on our side. That’s the sign of a good team.”

Milestone game for AI

Iafallo is no stranger to skating in the State of Hockey. The New York native played four seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth before signing a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Kings to begin his pro career.

Now 30, Iafallo’s fingerprints were all over this one.

He got his team on the board midway through the first period, taking a beautiful pass from Rasmus Kupari and beating Filip Gustavsson with a backhander from in tight. Give credit to Kupari for the aggressive forecheck, which set up the equalizer after Jake Middleton had opened the scoring for the home team.

Then, in the second period, Iafallo drew the ire of Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin just in front of the Winnipeg net. While the trio exchanged plenty of shoves and gloved swats, play continued up the ice with the Jets having a numbers advantage.

With the referees allowing the skirmish to continue, Nino Niederreiter took a pass from Neal Pionk and beat Gustavsson with a backhand for his ninth goal of the year.

“I just saw somebody hit Bucky, so I just kind of went in there and trying to clean it up around there. And I just looked down the ice, and the boys were scoring,” said Iafallo.

Iafallo didn’t draw an official assist, but he certainly was a key part of the scoring play.

Then, Iafallo tipped Pionk’s shot in the third period for his 100th goal, which gave the Jets some valuable insurance.

“I barely touched it,” Iafallo admitted. “That’s a great shot from up top, because we’re just talking about getting pucks to net on power play right there, especially at the end. We need a goal to keep the momentum going.”

The only goal Iafallo didn’t contribute to was Adam Lowry’s empty-netter.

The longest wait

Did Mark Scheifele end up with the longest two-minute penalty in NHL history? It likely felt the case for the Jets top centre, who was sent to the sin bin with exactly one minute left in the first period after getting into a skirmish with Wild defenceman Middleton. Scheifele got a minor for roughing, while Middleton was the aggressor and got the extra punishment.

Winnipeg ultimately didn’t score on the play, and there wasn’t a single whistle until 12:55 was left in the middle frame. At that point, Scheifele — who couldn’t come out until play was halted due to the offsetting nature of his penalty — had served a sentence that lasted 8:05.

Throw in the 18-minute intermission and it seemed like an eternity between shifts for Scheifele.

Ville’s debut

Plenty of eyes were on Jets defenceman Ville Heinola, who was playing his first NHL game in more than 22 months after returning from not one, but two ankle surgeries. Skating on the third paring with Colin Miller, the 23-year-old had a mostly quiet night. And that’s a good thing.

Heinola did show off his wheels in the third period when he tried to skate the puck out from behind his net only to be hauled down by Marcus Foligno. That led to the power play on which Iafallo would capitalize.

Heinola played 12:14, with four shot attempts, two on goal and two giveaways on the night.

“I think he’d be the first to admit, that was fast for him. That was heavy and fast,” said Arniel.

“But he got to get in and experience it. But there were a lot of things that I liked. He has patience and poise. We know that. Especially on the breakouts and things like that.”

Key play

Iafallo’s second goal of the night on the power play gave Winnipeg some breathing room.

Three stars

1. Jets Connor Hellebuyck: 43 saves.

2. Jets RW Alex Iafallo: 2 goals.

3. Winnipeg D Neal Pionk: 2 assists.

Extra, extra

Defenceman Dylan Coghlan (22 straight scratches) and forward David Gustafsson (21 of 22 games parked in the press box) were once again the extras for Winnipeg.

Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov, who began the night second in NHL scoring with 34 points (13G, 21A) suited up despite suffering a lower-body injury last Thursday in Edmonton and missing Saturday’s game in Calgary.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg