Jets win at home again, improving to 14-3-1 at Canada Life Centre
It was a trap game. A decent team that just happens to be 30th in the NHL rode into Winnipeg looking to upset the No. 1 team in the league.
Sadly, for the Nashville Predators, the Winnipeg Jets would not be trapped.
Gabriel Vilardi scored two goals, Nik Ehlers and Kyle Connor each had two assists and Connor Hellebuyck recorded his league-leading fifth shoutout of the season as the Jets whipped the visiting Predators 3-0 in front of another sellout crowd at Canada Life Centre.
With the win, the Jets recorded their fourth straight victory and improved to 14-3-1 in front of the home crowd this season. Now 27-10-1, the Jets are the top team in the NHL with one game remaining in 2024. The Jets are 7-2-1 in their last 10.
“This is a great, the fans were outstanding tonight,” said Hellebuyck who now has nine shutouts in the calendar year of 2024. “We played hard tonight. Our team worked hard. We ground it out and got another big win. It’s fun playing at home.”
Although the first period was scoreless, there was still plenty of offence. The shots were 9-9 and while Hellebuyck was forced to make a couple of outstanding saves, Jets forwards Nikolaj Ehlers, Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor had tremendous scoring chances.
In the second period, the Jets continued to create chances but Vilardi, Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor just couldn’t find the target. Even with two power plays and a handful of great scoring chances, the Jets couldn’t beat Juuse Saros.
Then, at 17:15, Dylan DeMelo ripped a blistering shot, bar down that hit the bottom of the crossbar and deflected off Saros into the back of the net to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. On a night when the team’s high-scoring stars couldn’t buy a goal, DeMelo scored his first of the season from Morgan Barron (his second assist of the year) and Logan Stanley.
Winnipeg outshot Nashville 8-7 in the period (17-16 after 40 minutes) and probably should have been ahead 4- or 5-0. But Saros and some bad puck luck kept the Jets from blowing it open.
Nashville opened the third period with the man advantage after Stanley was sent to the box for slashing at the 20-minute mark of the second period. The best scoring chance during the Preds power play was a two-on-man the other way as Morgan Barron and Vladislav Namestnikov had a great opportunity that was foiled by Saros. However, shortly after the Jets killed the penalty, Nashville had five beautiful scoring chances and they missed the net on all but one. It was still 1-0, five minutes into the period, but the Preds were making noise.
However, that was about the time the Jets got their Mojo back. Winnipeg started taking the play to Nashville again and only Saros kept the visitors in the match.
Eventually Winnipeg would add to its lead. At 13:44, with the Jets enjoying a two-man advantage, Kyle Connor fed Nikolaj Ehlers who fed Gabriel Vilardi who was all alone in front and suddenly – bang, bang, bang -- it was 2-0 Jets.
A mere 59 seconds later, with the Jets still a man-up, Vilardi scored his second of the game and 17th of the year as Connors and Ehlers drew the assists once again.
For the final five minutes, the Jets played lock-down defence to secure Hellebuyck’s fifth shutout. Hellebuyck’s goals against average dropped to 2.02 and with 22 stops, his save percentage rose to .932. He is now 24-5-1 in 30 starts this season.
With two points, Connor moved into sixth overall in scoring in the NHL with 22 goals and 51 points. The three stars were DeMelo, Vilardi and Hellebuyck.
The Jets play again on Tuesday night, New Year’s Eve as they head to Colorado to play the vaunted Avalanche in what could be a game for the ages. It starts at 7 p.m. CST and it’s on TSN 3.
Photos from Monday's game vs. Nashville are courtesy of Scott Stroh and James Carey Lauder:
Comments