Lowry, Hellebuyck lead Jets past Canucks 4-0

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This article was published 23/03/2021 (1632 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Andrew Copp called for his team’s “hardest working game of the year.” Brock Boeser said they needed to play like it was their “most important game” of the season.

In the end, it was the Winnipeg Jets who met their lofty pre-game goal, grinding out an important and well-deserved 4-0 victory over a desperate Vancouver Canucks club Monday night at Rogers Arena. Adam Lowry led the way with a pair of goals, while Connor Hellebuyck turned aside all 22 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season.

“You could feel it during the day, right at the morning skate that the mood was right, the minds were right, they were excited about the game, there was nobody dragging,” said coach Paul Maurice. “We had a real good understanding of the weight of the game after losing two that we wanted to be right.”

Winnipeg improves to 19-11-2 and are now just two points behind Toronto and Edmonton for first place in the all-Canadian Division. Vancouver falls to 16-17-3, missing an opportunity to pull into a tie with Montreal with the fourth and final playoff spot (albeit with playing five more games than the Habs, whose game against the Oilers was postponed due to multiple players entering COVID-19 protocols).

The Jets were coming off two straight losses to start a season-long seven-game road trip, and began the night just three points ahead of the hard-charging Canucks who were on a 7-1-1 run. They got some early help from the out-of-town scoreboard when the Calgary Flames, who woke up Monday five points behind them, were upset by the lowly Ottawa Senators. And then Winnipeg went out and took care of business with the kind of workmanlike effort Copp predicted.

“I thought it was a pretty complete, pretty solid effort. Throughout the game, we didn’t give them a whole lot,” said Lowry. “A couple of posts that they got, a couple of chances. But Helly was rock-solid back there.”

It was shaping up to be a goalie duel, with the reigning Vezina Trophy winner in Hellebuyck going against Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko. The 25-year-old has been a brick wall for the month of March, arguably the NHL’s best netminder during that span. But it was Winnipeg’s’ de facto top line of Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Paul Stastny, the focus of plenty of well-deserved angst for their recent struggles, which got this one going in the right direction and set the tone for a successful night at the office.

When we last saw Wheeler on the ice, he was slamming his stick in anger and tossing a puck into the stands after the final buzzer of Saturday night’s 4-2 loss in Edmonton, a game in which the Jets raced out to an early 2-0 lead, then folded like a cheap tent.

This time, he was putting the puck in the net, burying his ninth of the year at 9:41 of the first period on a two-on-one rush. That quickly cooled some talk from Maurice earlier in the day that he might have to break up the trio if things didn’t turn around.

“It’s good to get a bounce to go our way. Obviously a little bit snake bit and not really the results we were looking for in the games prior. It’s the hardest part about this game and this league, is playing when you know you don’t feel great about the results that you’re getting and your confidence is low,” said Wheeler.

“The three of us have had enough success in this league that we can have a lot of confidence in ourselves individually, even though it’s sometimes hard to resort to those things when you’re shell-shocked like we were the last few games.”

Vancouver nearly knotted it up later in the frame as stellar sophomore defenceman Quinn Hughes hit the post. They had another good chance early in the second period as Zack MacEwen got a partial breakaway but was stopped by Hellebuyck.

But that was about the extent of what the stingy visitors gave the Canucks, as Winnipeg’s focus to defensive detail was apparent. And, quite fittingly, the shutdown line of Lowry, Copp and Mason Appleton played a major role in putting this away by contributing in the offensive zone.

Lowry made it 2-0 at 2:07 of the final frame as his pass attempt deflected off Travis Hamonic’s stick, went high into the air and alley-ooped over Demko’s head and directly into the net. They don’t ask how, just how many, right?

“That was top shelf. That was nice,” Lowry joked after the game.

Lowry’s second of the period, and seventh of the year, was a little prettier. His line controlled play for nearly a full minute, cycling the puck down low and winning all the little battles before Lowry finished off a pass from Copp at 8:42.

The big shutdown centre, who is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer and potentially a target in the expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken, is now up to seven goals and 10 assists in 32 games. To put that in context, he had 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 49 games last year.

The No. 1 line finished off a strong night as Scheifele won a puck battle on the boards and fed a wide-open Stastny for his 10th of the year at 17:00 of the third. A nice memento for Stastny as he played his 977th career regular-season game, which is the same number his father, Peter, played during a 15-year NHL career.

“You can spend 15 years in this league and your confidence can dry up pretty quick. So it was a good bounce-back game for us as a veteran line,” said Wheeler. “The more time you spend in the league, the more you learn that what happened last game, what happened the last few games, it has no bearing on what’s going to happen tonight unless you let it.”

Vancouver has been hit hard with injuries, with sniper Elias Pettersson missing a 10th straight game Monday. He was joined in the infirmary by Tanner Pearson, Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter, who was a late scratch. That prompted AHL callup Tyler Graovac, who has played games on loan to the Manitoba Moose earlier this year, to make his season debut. Bo Horvat got hurt blocking a shot during the third period and didn’t return.

Winnipeg will now practice on Tuesday in Vancouver to get set for the re-match with the Canucks on Wednesday night. After that, they’ll head to Calgary to play three games in four nights against the Flames starting Friday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg