Hellebuyck makes 34 saves, Jets shut out Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Connor Hellebuyck made 34 saves to set a franchise record with his sixth shutout of the season, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-0 at Scottrade Center on Friday.
Hellebuyck surpassed Ondrej Pavelec's record of five shutouts in 2014-15. It was his second shutout this season, and third of his career, in six starts against the Blues. He has 12 shutouts in his NHL career.

WATCH: [All Jets vs. Blues highlights]
Hellebuyck has 32 wins this season, second in the League behind Andrei Vasilevskiy's 35 for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"I was seeing pucks, seeing it well, and the guys were doing the right things in front of me," Hellebuyck said. "They were taking their guys, they were clearing rebounds and they were giving me sight lines, and that's all I ask of them and they were doing a phenomenal job of it. The guys played great tonight."

Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor each had a goal and an assist for the Jets (36-16-9), who have won four of five (4-1-0) and scored four or more goals in four of five.
"I thought we could have been a little bit better but Connor played really well and we got off to a nice lead in the first and we were able to cruise from there," Wheeler said.

Winnipeg trails the Nashville Predators by two points for first place in the Central Division.
Jake Allen made 19 saves and lost for the 12th time in the past 14 starts for the Blues (34-24-4), who have lost a season-high five in a row.
"If I had the answer it wouldn't be happening," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said of the recent struggles. "... We've just got to show up, enough talking. You can only say so much; you've got to go out and prove it."
St. Louis holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames.
"It's cliche, we've talked about it, but it's got to start showing up on the ice," Blues forward Alexander Steen said. "… Twenty games [remaining] and we're in a fight here."
Nic Petan and Wheeler scored 45 seconds apart in the first period to give the Jets a 2-0 lead.
Petan scored at 10:03 after Blues defenseman Chris Butler's giveaway for a 1-0 lead, and Wheeler scored from the right circle at 10:48 to make it 2-0.
Connor's fourth goal in four games, on the power play, increased the lead to 3-0 at 18:31.
Patrik Laine's 29th goal of the season and fourth in as many games, a wrist shot from the right circle at 6:04 of the second period, made it 4-0 on the Jets' 14th shot.

Goal of the game

Laine's goal at 6:04 of the second period.

Save of the game

Hellebuyck's save on Vladimir Sobotka 1:50 into the first period.

Highlight of the game

Petan's goal at 10:03 of the first period.

They said it

"It was maybe not the start we wanted but you would expect that start from St. Louis, and they were good, but we were able to get up to our speed and play pretty solid. We got to the right level for us, right speed, and we played fast and moved the puck quickly and we didn't give them a lot of ice to play on. We were good for as long as we needed to be." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice
"It's just too many mistakes throughout 60 minutes, including myself. You see the turnovers we're making against a top team like that, with tons of speed, they shove it right back down our throats pretty quick. We need to limit those and tonight it just sort of snowballed on us." -- Blues goaltender Jake Allen

Need to know

Wheeler has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) during a seven-game point streak. ... Laine has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Blues forward Nikita Soshnikov arrived in St. Louis on Friday after getting work-related visa issues settled. Soshnikov was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 15 for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

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What's next

Jets: At the Dallas Stars on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN360, SN1, FS-SW+, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Nashville Predators on Sunday (12 p.m. ET; NBC, TVAS, NHL.TV)