Jets top Lightning as Connor Hellebuyck outdues Andrei Vasilevskiy

Connor Hellebuyck won a battle between elite goaltenders, Morgan Barron and Mark Scheifele scored second-period goals and the Winnipeg Jets topped the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Thursday night.

In a matchup between two of the five active Vezina Trophy-winning goalies, Hellebuyck made 26 saves, while Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevsky also stopped 26 shots.

A three-time Vezina winner who backstopped Team USA’s gold medal-winning 2-1 overtime victory over Canada, Hellebuyck improved to 8-2-1 in head-to-head matchups with Vasilevskiy, the 2019 Vezina winner.

Gustav Nyquist scored his first goal for Winnipeg, and Kyle Connor added an empty-net goal as the Jets improved to 5-2-3 in their last 10 games.

Brayden Point scored the only goal for the Lightning, who have lost four straight games after going 20-1-1 from Dec. 20 to Feb. 25.

In the second period, Vasilevskiy made his best save at 6:30 on an odd-man rush following a steal by Walker Duehr, stuffing Cole Koepke at close range after a cross-ice feed from Duehr.

During the Jets’ second power play, a clever setup left Scheifele with a quick one-timer from near the right circle at 14:11, but Vasilevskiy stopped it.

Hellebuyck matched that effort a little over a minute later when he denied Brandon Hagel’s deke and backhander.

However, Winnipeg finally broke through at 15:31 of the second period when Barron won a draw in the defensive zone, chased a rush down the ice and potted a juicy rebound off Koepke’s shot.

The home club’s lead doubled 4:11 later when Alex Iafallo recorded his first of two assists by skating through center ice and passing to his left, where Scheifele, who also had an assist, shot past the Russian goalie for a two-goal cushion after 40 minutes.

Point cut the deficit to 2-1 when he found a long rebound off the end boards and buried a power-play goal at 1:52 of the third.

However, Nyquist answered with his first goal in his 40th game this season at 5:34 after Tanner Pearson won a 50-50 puck battle over Pontus Holmberg in the Winnipeg offensive end.

Connor sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 2:01 left as the Jets moved to 2-0-0 so far on their eight-game homestand.

–Field Level Media