Three things - Another game, another shutout for Hellebuyck

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets shut out the red-hot Colorado Avalanche 3-0 at Canada Life Centre. Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and 43^rd of his career. Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice, and Mark Scheifele had the other goal for Winnipeg who have beaten Colorado 11 times in the last 15 meetings in the Manitoba capital. The Jets will host Vancouver Tuesday night.

ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER SHUTOUT

Connor Hellebuyck was given a well-deserved night off on Friday so the organization could celebrate his recent milestones (300 wins, 40 shutouts and 500 games). The Jets starting netminder rewarded his team with a solid performance and now has shutouts in three straight regular season starts against the Avalanche going back to last season. Hellebuyck tied the franchise record for the most in a season, a mark he set in 2019-20 (58 GP) & 2017-18 (67 GP). Of note, Hellebuyck only required 34 games to reach the mark this season.

NO VLAD, LINE BLENDER

Vladislav Namestnikov could not play because of an upper body injury tonight so Scott Arniel made some changes to his lineup. Veteran forward Dominic Toninato would play his first game of the season, playing with David Gustafsson and Morgan Barron. Adam Lowry moved up between Alex Iafallo and Nikolaj Ehlers and Rasmus Kupari centred Nino Niederreiter and Cole Perfetti.

The Lowry line opened the scoring when Dylan Samberg hit Nikolaj Ehlers in full stride, Ehlers then cut past Cale Makar before beating Mackenzie Blackwood top corner at 1:08.

The Jets checking line held the MacKinnon line in check all night long and then with Winnipeg up 2-0 and the Avalanche net empty, Ehlers finished off the scoring with his second of the night.

“Our line was going in every single zone,” said Ehlers.

“We didn’t create a bunch of chances, but we didn’t give up anything against a pretty good line in this league.”

BIG LINE IMPACT

Winnipeg carried their 1-0 lead into the second period realizing that they needed some breathing room with the firepower that Colorado has. So, the Jets top line did their part in the win when Mark Scheifele scored his team leading 25^th goal of the season and reached the 50-point mark in 2024-25 (25-25—50 in 44 GP). He collected his 50th point in fewer than 45 games for the third time in his career (also 41 GP in 2018-19 & 44 GP in 2020-21) - tied with Ilya Kovalchuk for the most in franchise history.