It was a matchup between maybe the perfect goalie on the earth and the lowest-scoring staff within the NHL.
It went about precisely as you’d suppose it might.
Connor Hellebuyck turned apart all 22 pictures he confronted because the Winnipeg Jets took down the Nashville Predators 3-0 of their closing residence sport of 2024.
Each groups failed to attain within the opening interval with every managing to get 9 pictures on purpose and every failing on one energy play probability.
The Jets almost opened the scoring on their second energy play look of the sport halfway by way of the second. Gabriel Vilardi acquired the puck down low and tucked the puck round Juuse Saros within the crease however one way or the other missed the web.
Winnipeg acquired a 3rd probability to try to crack Nashville’s league-best penalty kill with 5:32 to go as Jeremy Lauzon picked up his second infraction of the evening, however as soon as once more the Preds acquired the job executed.
The Jets lastly cracked the goose finish with lower than three minutes remaining within the second after a nasty giveaway within the Nashville finish.
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Jonathan Marchessault had the puck within the nook and despatched a weak clearing try up the boards that was simply dealt with on the level by Logan Stanley. He slid the puck down the wall to Morgan Barron, who waited patiently because the slot cleared for Dylan DeMelo, who drifted into the open area, obtained a cross from Barron and ripped it excessive over Saros for his first of the season on the 2:42 mark of the interval.
Winnipeg carried that 1-0 lead into the third however the Predators started the third on the facility play as Stanley was known as for slashing as time expired within the second.
The Jets killed it off and some minutes later almost doubled their lead however Saros made an important cross-crease save to stymie Mark Scheifele on a partial 2-on-1.
A 3rd penalty to Lauzon put the Jets again on the facility play with 7:43 as they looked for an insurance coverage purpose and with 43 seconds left within the man benefit, the Predators had been known as for having too many males on the ice.
Winnipeg known as a timeout to relaxation their prime energy play unit earlier than the 5-on-3 and the transfer paid off. Kyle Connor fed the puck to the nook to Nikolaj Ehlers, who fanned on a cross-ice cross but it surely landed proper on the stick of Vilardi in entrance and he buried it simply 15 seconds into the 5-on-3 to develop the Jets’ lead.
That trio wasn’t executed.
With Winnipeg nonetheless on the person benefit, Ehlers slid a one-touch cross to the suitable faceoff dot the place Connor one-timed it. He didn’t get all of it, sending it large of the web however proper into Vilardi, who knocked the unfastened puck into the web for his second purpose in 62 seconds.
The Jets cruised residence from there to safe their twenty seventh win of the season and regain first place alone within the NHL standings with 55 factors in 38 video games.
Winnipeg now heads to Denver to face the Avalanche Tuesday evening. Pregame protection on 680 CJOB begins at 5 p.m. with the puck dropping simply after 7.
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