MONTREAL (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for his second shutout of the season in the Winnipeg Jets' 5-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
“All shutouts are a team shutout and tonight was no different,” Hellebuyck said. “The guys were blocking shots and keeping them to the outside, really applying the pressure in the o-zone. I thought we were a good team today.”
He has 22 career shutouts.
“Earlier in the game they had more action,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “Later in the game, he just looked solid. You get to a point in the game when he looks that way, you think, ‘I don’t think they’re going to beat him. We’re going to have to make a pretty egregious mistake here.’
“He’s picked the times when to play the puck, picked the times not to, moved it well when he needed to. His rebound control was really, really good tonight. He’s world class.”
Andrew Copp, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perrault each had a goal and an assist, and Paul Stastny and Derek Forbort also scored for the Jets. They have won three straight to improve to 25-13-3.
The Canadiens have lost three in a row. With Carey Price out until next week because of a lower-body injury, Jake Allen made 20 saves to drop to 1-5-4 in his last 10 starts.
“We knew big errors would cost the team goals,” Montreal winger Tomas Tatar. “It’s hard to say we didn’t work or we didn’t want it, because I honestly think we did, just the mistakes that we’re doing are costing us the game. We need to get rid of it. Those mistakes are happening too often right now. We have to clean them up.”
Winnipeg improved to 6-2 against Montreal this season.
Montreal defenseman Otto Leskinen made his season debut, taking Victor Mete’s spot in the lineup.
UP NEXT
Jets: At Ottawa on Monday and Wednesday nights.
Canadiens: Host Toronto on Monday night.
