When the Winnipeg Jets lost to Colorado in the playoffs in the spring, they had a ton of trouble keeping the puck out of their own net.
There was no such issue Thursday night as Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 35 shots he faced in a 1-0 Jets win to improve to 13-1 on the season.
It took just over a minute for the Jets to get on the board. Mark Scheifele stole the puck from Josh Manson at the Winnipeg blue line and sprung himself on a 2-on-1 with Gabriel Vilardi.
Scheifele carried the puck into the Colorado end before laying a perfect pass on the stick of Vilardi who roofed it past a helpless Alexandar Georgiev to make it 1-0 after 66 seconds of play.
Winnipeg nearly made it 2-0 shortly thereafter when Kyle Connor found himself in alone on Georgiev but he was turned aside.
Both sides had multiple decent chances as the period went along including two for Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon that Hellebuyck turned aside.
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With 1:38 remaining in the first, Winnipeg’s league-best power play got their first chance of the game thanks to an Artturi Lehkonen slashing penalty but Colorado got to the end of the period safely.
The Jets outshot the Avalanche 14-9 in the opening frame and continued to carry play as the second period got going but couldn’t find an insurance goal.
Colorado started to wrestle control away as the period rolled along with MacKinnon’s line looking especially dangerous but they also couldn’t find the back of the net, missing the net on the majority of their shot attempts.
With 4:26 left in the period, the Jets earned their second power play of the night when Devon Toews went to the box for tripping but again Winnipeg could not convert as the score stayed 1-0 heading to the third.
The Jets outshot the Avalanche 10-9 in the second but it was Colorado who was the stronger team early in the third, hemming the Jets in their own end for long stretches at a time.
Cale Makar had a great chance to level the score a few minutes into the third off a rebound but Hellebuyck made a fantastic right pad save to keep the slate clean.
The Jets came extremely close to padding their lead with less than six minutes to go when Mason Appleton set up Nikolaj Ehlers at the side of the net but Georgiev slid across to rob Ehlers with the glove.
With just under three minutes left, Colorado pulled Georgiev for an extra attacker and with 70 seconds remaining, Josh Morrissey took a holding penalty, giving the Avalanche an excellent opportunity to tie the score late.
But Hellebuyck and the four penalty killers locked it down to secure the victory as the Jets became the second team in NHL history to win 13 of its first 14 games in a season.
Colorado outshot the Jets 17-4 in the final frame and 35-28 for the game.
Winnipeg will look to keep piling up wins when they host the Dallas Stars Saturday at 2 p.m. Pregame coverage on Power 97 starts at noon.