In Winnipeg, Tristan Jarry made 32 saves and the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins shut out the Jets, 3-0, on Saturday.
“I thought the guys did a great job there boxing out early, and it allowed me to see a lot of pucks,” Jarry said. “I was seeing tips and played well positionally.
“It’s always nice when you don’t let anything in. I think it was just another good step in the right direction, getting better every game and being a better version of myself every game.”
After a scoreless 40 minutes, Jason Zucker hit for the game-winner 53 seconds into the third period.
Pittsburgh improved to 8-7-3.
“I think we’ve been making progress,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “This was one of our more conscientious games. Playing a one-goal hockey game I think is really a good experience for us to go through.
“You have to be diligent with the puck and just make sure you have an element of patience associated with your game so you don’t force something that’s not there. I thought that in the third period our guys did a really good job of that.”
Zucker’s goal held up until 18:26 of the third, when Bryan Rust scored to pushed the lead to 2-0.
“We were really good defensively, we were good through the neutral zone, good through our D-zone, good playing as a unit all over the ice,” Rust said. “I think we defended when we needed to, and we made plays when we needed to.”
Winnipeg dropped to 10-5-1.
“[Jarry] played great, obviously made some big saves,” Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “[Hellebuyck] played great as well. It was a tight game throughout, and there were a lot of big saves both ways.
“You’d like to get your goalie some offense when he’s playing that well. We have to figure out what we can do better and be ready for Monday (against the Carolina Hurricanes).”
Jake Guentzel hit for an empty-net goal to seal with it with the 3-0 final.
Connor Hellebuyck had 29 saves in the Jets loss.
“They weren’t really pushing for that next one,” Jets forward Adam Lowry said. “It almost seemed like they were content to sit above us and really slow things down through the neutral zone.
“It seemed like you had an outlet and you hit him, and there was no speed to kind of get in on the forecheck, and they flipped a lot of pucks out. It’s frustrating to play when a team’s content to do that, but they have to defend well to do that.”
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