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How Connor Hellebuyck stole latest Jets victory over Wild: 3 takeaways

26 November 2024Last Update :
How Connor Hellebuyck stole latest Jets victory over Wild: 3 takeaways

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Connor Hellebuyck put on a show at Xcel Energy Center on Monday night to lift the Winnipeg Jets to a seventh consecutive victory over their rival Minnesota Wild.

Hellebuyck made 38 of his 43 saves in the first two periods as the Jets secured a 4-1 victory at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild threw so much rubber to little avail in the first 36 minutes that the Wild seemed to sap themselves of energy. They went 12 minutes without a shot and had only five in the final 24 minutes.

Alex Iafallo, the University of Minnesota Duluth product, scored two goals, former Wild player Nino Niederreiter scored the winner, and Adam Lowry had an empty-netter for the Jets. For the second meeting in a row against Winnipeg, defenseman Jake Middleton opened the scoring, and the Wild didn’t score again.

Hellebuyck, who is coming off his second Vezina Trophy last season and could be the front-runner to win his second in a row this season, improved to 15-2 for the NHL-leading Jets.

In a battle between the top teams in the West, Kirill Kaprizov was able to return after missing Saturday’s game against the Calgary Flames. But he finished with four shots and no points.

Filip Gustavsson, who along with Hellebuyck entered the game with a 2.13 goals-against average and .924 save percentage, made 28 saves.

Wild winger Jakub Lauko didn’t play in the third period because of an injury. Three of the Wild’s four regulation losses in 21 games have come at home, where they are a pedestrian 4-3-1.

The Wild are 0-12-2 in the past two seasons against the Central Division foe Jets, Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.

Hellebuyck continues his roll

For the first time this season, the Wild got “goalied.”

They had a season-high 22 shots in the first period, which was tied for the second-highest single-period shot total in the NHL this season. It was also the second-highest first-period shot total since the 2017-18 season (23 shots versus Winnipeg on Jan. 13, 2018).

Through two periods, they had 39 shots, and they had by far the better of the chances all night.

But Hellebuyck was seeing everything, finding pucks through all sorts of traffic and often on grade-A chances. On one first-period sequence, Ryan Hartman turned Dylan DeMelo into a pretzel at the blue line, skated in on a two-on-one and made a tremendous pass to Marcus Johansson that Hellebuyck somehow reacted to and stopped while sliding right.

In the past four years, Hellebuyck has the second-most games, minutes, shots faced and saves in the NHL and is first in victories.

He showed why. The Wild had 4.41 expected goals after two periods.

Niederreiter strikes again

One of the worst trades in Wild history was Paul Fenton dealing Niederreiter to the Carolina Hurricanes for Victor Rask.

Niederreiter has haunted the Wild ever since with consistently good games. He snapped a 1-1 tie late in the second period with a cut to the net that ended with him roofing a backhander by Gustavsson for his ninth goal of the season.

Niederreiter has seven goals and 11 points in 15 meetings against the Wild.

This goal was avoidable. After Middleton fanned on a shot in the Jets’ end, Iafallo went back at Joel Eriksson Ek and got into a skirmish. For some reason, Yakov Trenin not once (behind the goal line) but twice (at the Winnipeg blue line) decided not to backcheck so he could help Eriksson Ek and let the Jets essentially run a four-on-three in the Wild zone while he and Eriksson Ek were well outside the play.

The Jets capitalized on that error in judgment.

Khusnutdinov misses second game in a row

Marat Khusnutdinov, who sustained a lower-body injury Thursday night at the Edmonton Oilers when blocking Evan Bouchard’s blast on a third-period Oilers power play, didn’t play for the second game in a row.

The Wild center took part in Monday’s morning skate, but he was limping around the dressing room when it was over. The fact the Wild then turned Travis Boyd’s emergency recall for Kaprizov into a regular recall might mean Khusnutdinov needs more time and Boyd will be the extra forward taken to Buffalo on Tuesday for a Wednesday night game against the Sabres. With Lauko banged up, that could be needed.

Boyd, a native of Hopkins, made his Wild debut in Calgary but didn’t play Monday. He took part in warmups, but Ben Jones and Devin Shore joined Lauko on the fourth line.

(Photo: Nick Wosika / Imagn Images)

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