In Winnipeg, Mason Appleton the first and fourth goals for the Jets in a 4-1 win over the visiting Calgary Flames on Thursday night.
Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets as they improved to 7-3-1. It was his 153rd win with the Jets, a franchise record.
“[The record] means a lot,” Hellebuyck said. “I care a lot about this organization, they’ve given me my shot and I care about the guys in front of me. It’s a testament to all the guys that I’ve played with. We just keep racking up wins, and it’s really exciting and I’m really glad I get to share it with these guys. A lot of guys have been with me from the beginning and I’m looking forward to the future now.”
Andrew Mangiapane staked the Flames to a 1-0 lead in the period before the Jets settled down.
“You saw [Hellebuyck] upset after [Monday’s loss],” the Jets’ Adam Lowry said. “He’s a competitor. He wants to win every night. We appreciate that he gives us a chance night in and night out. He’s the backbone of our team.”
Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele added single markers for Winnipeg.
Appleton’s second goal of the game was into an empty-net to ice the win.
“[Appleton] has been awesome to play with to be honest,” Winnipeg’s Mathieu Perreault said. “He forechecks really hard, he’s a really fast player and he talks a lot on the ice. He makes things easy for his linemates. He’s just a great player and I’ve been enjoying playing with him and Lowry the last few games.
“Tonight it feels like everybody was in the right spot at the right time and if we weren’t then [Hellebuyck] was making the big saves. All in all, it was a great game.”
Calgary dropped to 4-5-1.
“I think we started the game good,” the Flames’ Rasmus Andersson said. “The second period we just don’t play together. We don’t get the puck out when we should and we’re not clean. We’re just kind of throwing it away and not playing as a unit of five out there in the second period, and it cost us one or two goals.”
Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves in the loss.
“A lot of the goals tonight we self-inflicted. We left [Markstrom] out to dry,” Flames head coach Geoff Ward said. “Standing beside a guy on the first one. There were mistakes by us — really we’ve got to get back to being committed to play to what our identity is and committed to the defensive details in our hockey game.
“We’re soft in a lot of areas of the hockey game. Let’s start there. We’ve got to raise our compete level.”
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