Hellebuyck, Jets blank Wild, 2-0

In Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves, and the Jets defeated the Minnesota Wild, 2-0, on Tuesday night.“I think we protected the house real well,” Hellebuyck said. “We had good backchecking. Our [defensemen] just played a phenomenal game, keeping everything to the outside, allowing me to see pucks and clearing rebounds. And that’s huge. And not only that, it wasn’t a whole lot of scrambles. It was tight and guys were playing off each other. And that’s what you want to see.”

The Jets moved to 19-17-7.

“I think we’re desperate,” the Jets’ Adam Lowry said. “The way our play was the first half of the season, we put ourselves in a pretty tough spot and we’re gonna have to kind of get our way out of it. And every game is crucial.”

Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets.

The Wild dropped to 28-11-3.

“We’ve got to learn from it,” the Wild’s Jordan Greenway said. “The good thing is we’ve set ourselves up to maybe have a lapse like this, fair game. But going forward we’ve got to find a way to get back to our game.”

Scheifele scored off the power play in the opening frame for the only goal Hellebuyck needed.

“We didn’t get to our game,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “I was going to say we didn’t get it quick enough, but I don’t think we got to it at all. We had offensive zone time. Pucks were bouncing, but we didn’t get to the net like we should have. There was a pile of rebounds there. [Winnipeg] did a real good job of collapsing, protecting the slot, and we didn’t do a good enough job of having more will to get to that area for us that we normally do.”

Nate Schmidt hit for an empty-net goal with 75 seconds left in the third period for the 2-0 final.

“I think it’s playing start to finish, that’s the biggest thing,” Winnipeg coach Dave Lowry said. “We all know that this is a tough division (Central) to win in. When you look at the style and you look at the teams, this is the way you have to play. You have to play start to finish, and usually the games are physical.”

Kaapo Kahkonen made 27 saves in the Wild loss.