Hellebuyck shuts out Avalanche for 3rd straight time in regular season in Jets win

WINNIPEG — Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves for his NHL-leading sixth shutout and the Winnipeg Jets won 3-0 against the Colorado Avalanche at Canada Life Centre on Saturday.

“He [Hellebuyck] had an easy night,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said jokingly. “We only gave up five five-on-five chances, so easy night. No — never, ever discredit a guy that gets a shutout. I mean he had to make stops. He knew that they were trying to get their (shot) volume, and that's another thing we did a really good job of tonight was get in shot lanes. We did a really good job of making sure that not all those pucks got to the net front. But when stuff happens, he's there. Their second power play they… attacked it a little bit more, and he certainly had to be big.”

Hellebuyck has earned a shutout in three straight regular season meetings with Colorado. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner had 35 saves in a 1-0 win on Nov. 7 and 30 saves in a 7-0 win on April 13.

He is 15-7-4 with five shutouts in 26 regular-season games against the Avalanche, including 8-1-0 in his past nine.

“He's been fantastic all year,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “And not just this year. For me, he’s been one of the top guys in the League for a while. I think that that is earned. It's consistency over time, giving your team a chance to win, which is kind of what we're seeing out of our guy now. He gives you the chance every night if guys are playing and committed in front of him. When there's a breakdown, he's there to save it so you've got to try to make it as difficult as you can on him.”

Nikolaj Ehlers scored two goals and Mark Scheifele also scored for the Jets (29-12-3), who had lost four of five (1-2-2).

“He’s rolling,” Ehlers said of Hellebuyck. “All the years I’ve played with him he’s been unbelievable. We’ve had some really good goalies, been really lucky with the goalies we have… 'Bucky' is the best, there’s no way around it.”

Mackenzie Blackwood made 26 saves for the Avalanche (26-17-1), who had points in nine of their past 10 (8-1-1).

“(Winnipeg’s team defense) was rock solid,” Bednar said. “One thing you can't do; is that we came out a little soft and they got that early goal. And then we kind of picked it up a little bit second half of the first period. But you spot them one, it's tough enough to try and find the offense, and then they're digging in… It just didn't look like we had the energy and the determination to kind of get through some of their checking. We had some opportunities. We checked hard. We played hard. But the offense just wasn't coming tonight for us.”

Ehlers scored 1:08 into the first period, taking the puck at the red line and beating Blackwood with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 1-0 Jets.

“I think I felt good out there, our line was going in every single zone,” Ehlers said. “We didn’t create a bunch of chances, but we didn’t give up anything against a pretty good line in this league.”

Scheifele made it 2-0 at 15:53 of the second. Josh Morrissey began the play by circling behind the net and delivering a saucer pass to Kyle Connor in the slot, who then jammed it to Scheifele for a one-timer from the net side.

“I feel like we did a really good job against them,” Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg said. “The past two games have been really good, defensively as a team. We held them to minimal scoring chances, which is what you’ve got to do against teams like this.”

Scheifele nearly scored again when he was alone in front at 18:59, but his backhand attempt was denied by Blackwood.

“They play good defense — tight,” Blackwood said. “They don’t give you a lot of chances so you know it’s going to be a close game, and another close one today.”

Ehlers scored into an empty net at 19:03 of the third for the 3-0 final.

NOTES: Hellebuyck’s sixth shutout of the season ties his career high and the franchise record, which he set in 2017-18 and matched in 2019-20. It was his 43rd career shutout, tying him with Craig Anderson for the third most by a United States goaltender, behind Jonathan Quick (62) and Ryan Miller (44). He leads the NHL with 26 wins (26-6-2). … Colorado is 12-4-1 in its past 16, and 7-3-0 in its past 10 road games. … Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov was a game-time decision and did not play after blocking a shot in the third period of a 2-1 loss against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday. … Scheifele has six points (three goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … Connor has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in his past 13 games.