Hellebuyck’s Brilliance and Iafallo’s Feistiness Gives Jets Huge Road Win Against Wild

Hellebuyck, Iafallo Lead Jets to win over Wild

ST. PAUL, MINN. – It never hurts to have the greatest goaltender in the game. 

On Monday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, the Winnipeg Jets got another brilliant performance from two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck as they beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1.

It was a phenomenal first two periods for Hellebuyck who stopped 38 shots through the first 40 minutes -- many of them from right in front of the net -- as he kept the Jets in the game long enough for his teammates to take control of the pace in the third period. 

“Connor bailed us out early in the game, he does that a lot, wins us a lot of games. He gives us a chance and tonight we recovered in the second period and took command in the third.”

With the win, the Jets improved to 18-4-0 on the season and are now 2-1-0 on this gruelling six-game road trip that will continue in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

A big part of the Jets win on Monday – and make no mistake Hellebuyck was the story of the night – was the play of Alex Iafallo, who had two goals and kind of created the winning goal simply by infuriating the Wild.

Minnesota opened the scoring at 8:37 as Jake Middleton banged home a rebound off a Marcus Johansson shot, but that’s all Minnesota got despite outshooting the Jets 22-9 (it was 19-9 at the end of the period, and then, during the intermission, the Wild’s shot total jumped to 22). In fact, on the Wild’s lone first period power play, they outshot the Jets 6-0.

But Hellebuyck was so good in the first period he saved the day long enough for the Jets to even the score. At 10:03, Iafallo cut across the front of the net and ripped a backhander to the short side, past Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson. It was a brilliant goal, Iafallo’s third of the season, as Rasmus Kupari picked up the only assist.

“In the first period, it felt more like a feeling out (process)," head coach Scott Arniel said. "They probably had the upper hand. In the second, I thought we started to get going. Where we weren’t very good in Nashville in the second period, we did a better job of kind of being heavy. They were going to get some looks, but I thought we did a good job of every time we got the puck below the goal line, our offence got going and we got some zone time. That game was a heavy-lifting game for everybody. It was hard off of rushes to get clear chances or real opportunities that way. I like the way the guys kind of felt that if they get the puck down low, we went to work from there.”

Hellebuyck’s play obviously frustrated the Wild. With about eight minutes left in the second period and the game still tied, Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek went in alone on the Jets netminder and Hellebuyck not only stopped Eriksson Ek’s original shot, but the rebound, as well. That resulted in one of many skirmishes in front of the Jets net, but this time it cost the Wild a goal. 

Two Wild players lost their minds over Alex Iafallo helping his goaltender and started giving Iafallo the what-for in the Jets end. Meanwhile, the Jets carried the puck into the Minnesota zone and found themselves in a five-on-three situation on the rush. While the two Wild players continued to push and shove Iafallo, Pionk hit Nino Niederreiter with a perfect pass as Niederreiter was driving to the net. El Nino made a quick move in front of Gustavsson and backhanded a shot to the roof of the net to give the Jets a 2-1 advantage at 12:05. It was Niederreiter’s ninth goal of the season in his 909th career NHL game.

Even as the Jets celebrated the goal, the two crazed Wild players were still mixing it up with Iafallo.

The Wild outshot the Jets 17-12 in the second period, 39-21 after 40 minutes, but Hellebuyck continued to be the story of the game. And frankly, after Niederreiter scored the Wild was not the same team that started the game. It was as if they’d punched themselves out.

In the third period, the Wild didn’t get their 40th shot of the game – their first of the period until the 9:57 mark. The Jets, meanwhile, had a couple of decent scoring chances and had outshot Minnesota 5-1 through the first 10 minutes of the frame.

Then with 7:31 left in regulation, Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno hauled down Josh Morrissey and the Jets had a man advantage -- and they took advantage. 51 seconds into the power play, Neal Pionk drilled a shot from the middle of the ice at the top of the circle that was tipped by Iafallo and deflected off Gustavsson to give the Jets a 3-1 lead. It was Iafallo’s fourth goal of the year, second of the game and the 100th of his NHL career. Pionk and Cole Perfetti drew the assists. 

"It was awesome," Arniel said of Iafallo. "For him that's 100 NHL goals. That's a great accomplishment. I'm not sure what he was up to but he got everybody stirred up and mad at him on Nino's goal. He had two guys sort of chasing him around the ice, and we took advantage of it. But that's one thing about Al, he's such an all-purpose player. We use him on the penalty kill, he's out there on the power play. Then when you need him to shut down the opposition he does a great job. And he's a real good pro. We know what we're getting every night from him."

Even with six attackers the Wild had no legs late in the third. In fact, Minnesota had only five shots on goal in the third period. They were completely spent. It was like the rope-a-dope. The Wild kept punching and punching for the first 35 minutes of the game, but Hellebuyck was simply too good and by the final 20 minutes of regulation, the Wild had no gas left in the tank.

Connor Hellebuyck was obviously the first star of the game and Iafallo was No. 2. Pionk could have been No. 3 but that went to Jake Middleton of the Wild. In the end, the Wild outshot the Jets 44-31, but Hellebuyck was just too good.

Interestingly, Bill Guerin, the GM of the 2026 US Olympic hockey team, who also happens to be the GM of the Wild, was in the Jets dressing room after the game congratulating Hellebuyck, the man who will make Guerin’s United States team, the favourites to win Olympic gold in two years.

Monday’s victory was Winnipeg’s second win in two meetings against the Wild this season. Minnesota, the second-place team in the Central is now 13-4-4 and trails the Jets by six points.