THREE THINGS: Jets give Nino extra reason to celebrate

WINNIPEG – Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves to lead the Winnipeg Jets past the Washington Capitals 5-1 at Canada Life Centre. Gabe Vilardi had two goals, Mark Scheifele (2A), Kyle Connor (2A), Adam Lowry (2A), Alex Iafallo (1G, 1A) and Josh Morrissey (2A) had multi-point nights for the Jets who are back to .500 (15-15-1). Morrissey reached 400 career points as well; the Jets will close out the homestand Monday against the Ottawa Senators.

CELEBRATING NINO 1000

Nino Niederreiter became the first Swiss born NHLer to play 1000 games. Nino was drafted fifth overall by the New York Islanders in 2010 and has spent time with five NHL franchises. He has played 212 games with Winnipeg, 434 games with the Minnesota Wild, 234 games with the Carolina Hurricanes, 64 with the New York Islanders, and 56 with the Nashville Predators. Before the game, Niederreiter was presented with a silver stick and this video filled with Swiss stars was played.

Niederreiter played 15:45 and finished +1 and had two hits and has a ton of memories to take home with him on a special night and talked about the video tribute.

“I mean, it was amazing. It was something I will never forget,” said Niederreiter.

“Always, like I said, as a little boy, you dream about moments like this, and top it off as a win like that. It was amazing.”

HELLE’S BACK

On top of the Niederreiter 1000 game celebration, the Jets were pleased to welcome back their MVP, Connor Hellebuyck back after his recovery from knee surgery. Winnipeg went 3-8-1 without Hellebuyck in the lineup and his impact was felt on the penalty kill in the opening period as the Jets took two penalties and both Capital power plays were shut down. The Capitals broke Hellebuyck’s shutout bid with 3:28 left in the third period when Jakob Chychrun scored during a 5-on-3 man advantage. Hellebuyck finished with 24 saves and reached 331 career wins and passed Harry Lumley and into 30^th spot on the all-time list.

“I mean, it’s hard for me to put that into words because I’m just doing my job back there. This core has just been together for so long and I’ve been very grateful to play a lot of games,” said Hellebuyck.

“You just have a way of playing with this core. We just meshed a certain way. Getting back in there feels great and I just felt like I hadn’t missed any time.”

SO MUCH BETTER

On Thursday, the Jets lost for the first time in regulation when scoring the game’s first goal. Tonight, they jumped out to an early lead thanks to Logan Stanley using hand-eye coordination to bat in his fifth goal of the season. Stanley has the same number of goals (5) in 31 games in 2025-26 that he did in his previous 202 games.

Morgan Barron (18:43 of 1^st) and Alex Iafallo (3:39 of 2^nd) each scored the second straight game to make it 3-0 Winnipeg and as the second period wound down a beautiful three-way passing play finished off by Gabe Vilardi on the power play gave the Jets a four-goal lead heading into the third. The Jets and Caps would each score a goal in the third and Winnipeg got the much needed two points thanks to a solid effort from everyone.

"Yeah, for sure it was. It was 20 guys. That was complete, throughout the lineup, all four lines looking a lot alike. D were real solid,” said Scott Arniel.

“Obviously Helle was good when he had to be, but you're right. That was one of the best, most complete games of the year."