In Winnipeg Friday, the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves to pick up his 33rd win of the season in a tight 4-3 decision over the Detroit Red Wings.
“This was a good building day for us,” Hellebuyck said. “I know we have better and we want to shut teams down. This is a good steppingstone to realize we have more to give. We worked hard enough to get it done.”
Patrik Laine struck for two goals as the Jets had to hold off the Wings in the third period.
“I just started to skate more and tried to work hard and play as simple as I can,” said Laine, who has eight goals and five assists in a seven-game point streak. “That’s the biggest reason why I’m getting rewarded.”
The Jets ke4pt pace with the Nashville Predators whom they trail by six points for the Central Division top spot.
Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot added single markers for Winnipeg.
Detroit got goals from Niklas Kronwall, Anthony Mantha and Trevor Daley.
“It’s another one-goal loss here,” Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg said. “We can say that we were close and that we battled hard in the third, but there’s no reason for us to be in that situation.”
Detroit is seven points back of the second wild card spot in the4 east.
[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Jets highlights]
Jimmy Howard made 38 saves in the loss.
“Well, tonight, I thought we had too many unforced errors, mistakes on goals where I thought we didn’t need to,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said after the loss. “Certainly, they got lots to do with it, they’re a real good team. But I thought in the first, in particular, we were playing really good, we scored the first goal, and then we gave away two goals. We got to be way better defensively. We got to make teams earn it more than they did on those two goals.”
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