In Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuyck made 42 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, in a 4-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.
“It was one of those nights that they just hit you,” Hellebuyck said. “I could tell early on when the puck was just going my way, bounces were going my way, tips were going my way, posts were going my way. It was just one of those nights.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois broke a scoreless tie in the middle frame to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.
“Not getting out of that first period with a goal I think really hurt us,” Vegas coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought we did everything right, but you’ve got to score to win games in this league and we didn’t score on this [two-game] trip.”
Vegas dropped to 34-28-4.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored for Winnipeg to push goal streak to five games, goal came in the third period for the 4-0 final.
“We played a team that showed a lot of urgency to start and our goalie was our best player,” Winnipeg coach Dave Lowry said. “I didn’t like our first period, no. I liked our goalie’s first period. He gave us an opportunity to settle in and get going.”
The Jets moved to 30-24-10.
“I think [Hellebuyck] is always special,” DeBoer said. “Vezina [Trophy winning] goalie, so he’s a good goalie. We had enough good looks there to score some goals, but he had the answers tonight.”
Mark Scheifele pushed the Jets advantage to 2-0 in the second period.
“[Ehlers] was on the puck,” Lowry said. “He created opportunities. We scored a goal where we had three guys up after it and two guys at the net. It’s amazing what happens when you get pucks and bodies to the net.”
Winnipeg’s Neal Pionk extended the lead to 3-0 midway through the third period.
“We’re all familiar with [Appleton], very familiar with him, and it’s good to have him back,” Dubois said. “And ‘Sandman’, that’s [Sanford’s] new name, also good to have him here. I thought they played really well tonight. You never really know what can happen at the deadline. You lose guys that have been here for a while, guys that everyone loves on the team in [Andrew Copp] and [Nathan Beaulieu]. … I think [Appleton] and [Sanford] bring a lot to our team, and tonight they showed what they can do. They could have easily had one or two [goals], and a big penalty draw [by Sanford] to get our first goal.”
Logan Thompson made 22 saves in the Vegas loss.
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