In Buffalo, the Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck made 39 saves on Thursday in a 4-2 win over the Sabres. 
“He was outstanding tonight,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said of Hellebuyck. “He was the difference-maker tonight. Their guy made some pretty good saves too; not as many as Connor, but he made some timely saves tonight. The other night was one of those nights where we didn’t give up a lot, but every one went in. It was just one of those games. Tonight, we found a way to get that goal in the third, but we have to find a way to play smarter than that. There’s no sugarcoating it.”
The Jets improved to 27-14-1.
The Jets took a 1-0 lead on a marker from Dylan Samberg in the first period.
The Sabres got even on a strike from Victor Olofsson at 12:02 of the middle frame.
“We’ve been talking a lot too, to just create scoring chances as soon as we win the puck, and I think we’ve been way better in the last couple games of doing that,” Olofsson said.
The Sabres dropped to 20-18-2.
“A really important factor for us tonight was to get back to our game, play a higher tempo, higher paced game,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “I thought [the Jets] played with a lot of intent to try to deny that. … They were aggressive defensively. They clogged the neutral zone up very well. We had to work hard to get our ice and create our ice. I thought our guys did a nice job to do that and got some volume of opportunity.
“[Hellebuyck] was their best player tonight. On the flip side, ‘Upie’ didn’t have as much work as that, but Upie was also very good, and his body language was good. He looked with it. He read things well and I was happy to see that from him as well.”
In the third period, the Jets took a 2-1 on a point shot form Josh Morrissey.
“Been outstanding all year,” Bowness said. “We get used to it. But he’s been a dynamic force in our offense all year. We want him to shoot, keep shooting like he did tonight. But he’s doing things defensively as well. He’s up against the best players and he’s still putting points on the board, he still feeds that transition for us. He’s been outstanding.”
Tyson Jost got the Sabres back to even at 2-2 at 2:25 of the third.
“It stings, but I think you’ve got to look at some of the positives that we did,” Jost said. “We did get rolling there and we had a lot of opportunities and a lot of chances. We’ve just got to bear down and capitalize.”
Kyle Connor then scored what proved to be the game-winner at 7:19 of the third on a breakaway.
“[Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen] was out pretty far. I just gave him kind of a little fake shot and he froze pretty good,” Connor said. “Backhand, forehand, lost an edge, but I had him, so it worked out.”
Karson Kuhlman hit an empty net with 43 seconds left for the 4-2 final.
Luukkonen made 23 saves in the Sabres loss.
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