Hellebuyck makes 40 saves, Jets shut out Avalanche

WINNIPEG -- Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves, and Blake Wheeler had a hat trick and an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

"[Wheeler's] just been on fire," Hellebuyck said. "His workload and work ethic was so good and so strong. When he's playing the right way, he's just dominating play. We all know what kind of player he is. When he gets in that rhythm, honestly, he works twice as hard as everyone else on this team."
Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists, and Cole Perfetti had three assists for the Jets (14-6-1), who have won four of five.
"[Hellebuyck's] been our best player all year," Wheeler said. "For a guy whose won a Vezina and been second [in Vezina voting] before, this is the best I've seen him play. He's been the backbone of our team for a long time. He's just taken his game to another level and given us an opportunity to win every night."
Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves for the Avalanche (12-7-1), who have lost two of three.
"We had some hard-working guys, but when you're a short, depleted roster you can't have any passengers, and we just had too many of them tonight," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "You look at the goals we gave up, they were odd-man rushes and grade A scoring chances from them on the rush attack.
"I thought we had some good effort at times, but there was a lot of things in our checking side of our game that was effort-based and puck decisions. It just didn't look like we were engaged enough to go and win a tough road game against a good team."

Wheeler gave the Jets a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal from the top of the right circle at 9:18 of the first period.
Josh Morrissey made it 2-0 at 3:46 of the second period with a slap shot from the point.
Wheeler then extended it to 3-0 at 13:07, scoring on the rush off a backhand pass from Perfetti.
"We've got to look at what we did wrong," Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano said. "We gave them some opportunities off the rush which they capitalized on, and ultimately, we weren't good enough. They were better. We had a decent game going but we just weren't pushing through enough to create opportunities and create goals and that's on us as forwards to get a little grittier at the net and make second opportunities happen. We've got to be better. At the end of the day; not good enough from us."
Scheifele made it 4-0 at 1:22 of the third period when he finished a 2-on-1 with Kyle Connor.
Wheeler completed his fourth NHL hat trick at 16:09 for the 5-0 final. Scheifele stole the puck in the offensive zone and fed Perfetti, who sent a spinning backhand pass to Wheeler in front.
"Tonight the big guys stepped up, clearly," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "Connor made the big saves when he had to. I know they had a lot of shots in the third, but they only had a couple chances right at the end, so I'm not too concerned about that. We started to play our hockey as the game went on."

NOTES: Hellebuyck's shutout was his third this season and 31st in the NHL. ... Wheeler had his 13th four-point game. He has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past five games. … Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen's nine-game point streak ended. … Avalanche forward Jean-Luc Foudy had three shots in 12:11 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Scheifele had his 55th three-point game. The Jets are 52-1-2 in those games. … Morrissey recorded his 20th assist in his 21st game this season. Only two active defensemen have reached the mark in fewer games: Quinn Hughes (17 games, this season) and John Carlson (18 games, 2019-20). Morrissey has nine points (four goals, five assists) on a five-game point streak. … Connor has six points (three goals, three assists) on a five-game point streak.