Good-bye Connor Hellebuyck.
They came early to get it out of their system. They booed the opposing “backup” goaltender as if their pride depended on it. They carried signs. They chanted. And in the end, they won!
A full house of 15,209 at Canada Life Centre wanted Connor Hellebuyck to know exactly what they thought of him. They especially wanted to tell the Devils’ what they thought of the decision to sit Hellebuyck in his first game back in Winnipeg after 11 seasons.
The excuse from New Jersey GM Sunny Mehta was “In our estimation, playing in this game would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability.” Turns out, it was the load of hooey everyone thought it was.
Hellebuyck warmed up, but ever came out of the dressing room during the game (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
After once again bringing up phantom “death threats” without providing any proof or even an anecdote, Hellebuyck whined and moaned his way through an afternoon news conference. Then he sat in the dressing room (too cowardly to even come out) and watched his partner Jake Allen lose on TV as the man the Jets got in exchange for Hellebuyck, Dawson Mercer, scored twice and was the game’s first star.
The final score was Winnipeg 4, New Jersey 2 as the building in downtown Winnipeg rocked as hard as it has rocked since Cole Perfetti scored against St. Louis with 1.6 seconds left in regulation two long years ago.
Kyle Connor also scored twice, his 14th and 15th of the season, while Perfetti had two assists as the Jets won their fourth straight game, got back to .500 at 8-8-3 and pulled to within two points of the final Wild Card spot in the West.
Oh, and Josh Morrissey finally returned from an injury that turned out to be a lot more serious than people thought and anchored the Jets defensive corps.
Josh Morrissey returned (Photo by Lames Carey Lauder)
“It was unbelievable in here tonight,” said Mercer after the game -- and he was right.
Fittingly, the Jets opened the scoring at 7:54 when Mercer, the 24-year-old forward who was the major part of the Hellebuyck deal fired a wrist shot from 35 feet out that eluded Allen. It was Mercer’s second of the year as Perfetti drew the assist.
Winnipeg made it 2-0 with a two-man advantage when Kyle Connor fired what appeared to be a pass from a sharp angle that deflected off Allen and slipped behind the Devils netminder. It was Connor’s 14th of the year as Perfetti (9) and Mark Scheifele (15) were credited with the helpers.
In all, it was a great first period. There were plenty of chances on both sides as Nico Daws (another benefit of the Hellebuyck trade) stopped all 11 shots he faced. The Devils outshot the Jets 11-8.
In the second period, it didn’t take long for New Jersey to tie the game. At 1:14, Jesper Brett drilled a wrister into the corner behind Daws to make it 2-1 and then Manitoba’s own Cody Glass tipped-in a Johnathan Kovecevic shot to even things up just 44 seconds later.
That did it for goals in the second period. New Jersey outshot Winnipeg 6-5 and we were going to the third deadlocked at two each.
Not much happened in the third until 11:58. That’s when it got really, really loud inside Canada Life Centre. On the power play, Dawson Mercer took a beautiful pass from Alex Iafallo and drilled a one-timer from in-close past Allen who didn’t have a chance. It was Mercer’s second of the night and third of the season as Iafallo and Viggo Björck (4) drew the assists.
New Jersey didn’t get a shot on Daws until 13:09 of the third period (the Jets had outshot the Devils 6-0 at that point in the period), but that’s about the time they started to play with a little urgency.
With about three minutes left, chants of F-You Helly rained down from the crowd and the Jets responded. New Jersey had a couple of shots but no particularly dangerous chances and Connor fired one into the empty net at 19:02 and the Jets put the Hellebuyck Era to bed.
Morrissey, Perfetti and Mercer (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
Winnipeg outshot New Jersey 12-4 in the third period and 25-21 overall. The three stars were 1. Mercer, 2. Connor and 3. Perfetti. The crowd could have qualified fior one of those stars as well.
The Jets now head out onto the road. They go to Dallas for a game on Thursday night and then play in Chicago on Saturday at 3:30 in the afternoon.
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