In Vancouver, the Canucks were a no-show on Saturday. The Winnipeg Jets took a 5-0 lead through the third period before the Canucks finally got on the board in a 5-1 loss.
Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves in the Jets win.
Winnipeg improved to 20-9-1.
Kyle Connor got the Jets offense rolling in the first period for a 1-0 lead.
“That’s Winnipeg Jet-hockey,” Connor said. “Next man up, everybody do their job. Great response from everybody. We needed help from everybody tonight, top to bottom. Like you saw on the score sheet, everybody contributed.”
Winnipeg took a 2-0 lead in the middle frame on a strike from Kyle Capobianco.
The Canucks were playing without Elias Pettersson due to illness.
“You take your best offensive player out and usually that’s not a good thing on any team,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But teams that are good enough can withstand injuries, and that’s when other guys get the opportunity to show what they have.”
Neal Pionk pushed the lead to 3-0 headed to the third period.
“I love to see it,” Hellebuyck said. “I love to see the guys succeed, especially with how hard they’ve been playing and how hard they’ve been working for me.”
Vancouver dropped to 13-14-3.
Sam Gagner scored 56 seconds into the third period for a 4-0 advantage.
“We’re not going to find any excuses,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “We’re going to find solutions. When you say that you’ve got to have different guys stepping up and making major contributions, two goals from the [defense] and Axel’s goal.
“That goal by [Gagner] early in the third period was huge, it gave us a little more momentum and gave us a little bit of a cushion.”
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, scored his first goal in 20 games for the 5-0 lead.
Vancouver’s Bo Horvat scored at 14:36 on a power play to break the shutout bid.
“The best teams are the most consistent teams on a nightly basis, and tonight it just wasn’t there for us,” Horvat said. “It was night and day from our game in Calgary and that’s unacceptable by us.”
Spencer Martin made 22 saves in the Canucks loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.