Connor Hellebuyck made a season-high 50 saves and the visiting Winnipeg Jets recorded a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
Mark Scheifele scored twice for the Jets, who handed the Rangers their first regulation loss since Jan. 19.
Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists while Pierre-Luc Dubois added a goal for Winnipeg. Josh Morrissey collected a pair of assists to set a single-season record for points by a defenseman (58) with the current Winnipeg franchise. Mason Appleton also contributed two assists.
Hellebuyck stopped 20 shots in a busy opening period and then made 11 more in the second. He also stopped 10 shots during four New York power plays and finished one shy of his career high of 51 stops set on Nov. 1, 2019, against the San Jose Sharks.
Hellebuyck stopped New York’s first 26 shots before Vincent Trocheck scored 11 minutes into the second.
New York’s Igor Shesterkin made 17 saves, but the Rangers saw their 10-game points streak (8-0-2) end despite producing their most shots on goal this season. It was the Rangers’ longest points streak since a 10-0-3 run early in the 2015-16 season.
Before allowing Trocheck’s goal, Hellebuyck made a point-blank stop on Vladimir Tarasenko with about 12 minutes left in the second. That came after he stopped Mika Zibanejad twice on a power play late in the first.
Hellebuyck withstood a busy third when the action was in the Winnipeg defensive zone for several minutes midway through the period. After making a point-blank stop on Alexis Lafreniere with about 14 minutes left, Hellebuyck made another save on Zibanejad and denied Chris Kreider during a power play midway through the third.
The Jets opened the scoring when Dubois tipped in Morrissey’s blast from the left point 5:12 into the first period for his 24th goal of the season. Winnipeg opened a two-goal lead with 3:28 remaining in the first when Scheifele stuffed in a rebound of Connor’s shot.
Connor’s wrist shot from the edge of the left circle sailed by Shesterkin’s glove and staked the Jets to a 3-0 lead 6:04 into the second. The Rangers ended the shutout bid when Trocheck buried Tarasenko’s cross-ice pass through the crease into the open right side of the net with nine minutes left in the second.
Scheifele finished it off by lifting a backhander from the low slot over Shesterkin with 4:31 remaining in the third period. He nearly completed the hat trick but was denied by Shesterkin about a minute later.
–Field Level Media
