10-30-2018, 08:41 AM
WINNIPEG Adam Larsson Jersey , Manitoba (AP) — Dustin Byfuglien returned to the Winnipeg lineup and helped carry the Jets to a victory.The defenseman had a goal and two assists in a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night after missing the previous two games with an upper-body injury.“I thought we put together a decent game,” said Byfuglien, who had his first goal of the season. “It’s nice to be back and we got our two points.”Patrik Laine and Bryan Little scored power-play goals, and Andrew Copp also scored for Winnipeg (4-2-1).Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the Jets, playing the third game in a season-long six-game homestand (2-0-1).Bo Horvat scored for the Canucks (4-3-0), who had their three-game winning streak halted.Anders Nilsson stopped 28 shots for Vancouver, which finished its six-game road trip 3-3.“We’ve got to take positives out of this (road trip),” Horvat said. “Obviously to go 3-3 — it would have been nice to go 4-2 — but I thought we played some good hockey on this road trip.“I think we opened up a lot of eyes in our room and kind of created a culture for ourselves and have an identity to our team a little bit, where we’re going to be competing every single night and playing fast. So it’s all about consistency now throughout the lineup.”Little broke a 1-1 tie at 4:58 of the third period with a backhand shot that beat Nilsson. He also picked up an assist.Laine beat Nilsson with a one-timer late in the first period. Copp made it 3-1 with 7:14 left in the third and Byfuglien scored his first of the season at 14:43.Winnipeg was coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to Edmonton on Tuesday. In that game, the Jets gave up a three-goal lead entering the third period.“After that last game we were pretty hungry in the third period,” Little said. “It was our best period. Once we got that go-ahead goal it seemed like we turned it up even more. That’s what you need. That’s what we were looking to do.”Winnipeg led 1-0 after the first period, and Vancouver tied it in the second.Laine scored with 64 seconds remaining, taking a pass from Blake Wheeler across the front of the net and scoring past Nilsson on the stick side.Horvat scored his fourth goal of the season on a great effort to get around Winnipeg defenseman Jacob Trouba, hang on to a bouncing puck and shoot it past Hellebuyck at 12:54 of the second.Vancouver continued a power play at the start of the third period, but wasn’t successful on its second man advantage in the game. Winnipeg was 2 for 2.After giving his team the 2-1 lead at 4:58, Little hit the post. Copp then scored his first goal of the season when he banged in a bouncing puck in the crease at 12:45, and Byfuglien sealed it with 5:17 remaining.Vancouver defenseman Troy Stecher said returning home with six points was good and the trip showed them one important thing.“That we never quit, that’s for sure,” Stecher said. “I think we’re a group that’s going to have to win by committee. We’re learning how to win as a group.“Everybody’s trying to play to the best of their ability, but some nights aren’t going to go the way you want.”NOTES: Wheeler’s goal was his 500th point with the Jets franchise. It ranks second behind Ilya Kovalchuk during his time with the Atlanta Thrashers. … After being outshot 7-1 six minutes in, Winnipeg ramped it up and had an 11-8 edge at the end of the opening period.UP NEXTWinnipeg: Hosts Arizona on SaturdayVancouver: Hosts Boston on Saturday. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Connor Hellebuyck bounced back in a big way, just as the Winnipeg Jets were expecting.The 24-year-old goalie turned aside every shot Minnesota could muster, shoving the Wild to the brink of elimination.Mark Scheifele scored both goals for Winnipeg and Hellebuyck made 30 saves for his seventh shutout this season, as the Jets beat the Wild 2-0 on Tuesday night to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.”You knew, five to 10 minutes into that game, he was right and feeling good,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.Scheifele scored with 28 seconds left in the first period, spoiling a fine performance on the other end by Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, and tacked on an empty-netter with 11 seconds remaining.The Wild, now without star left wing Zach Parise because of a broken sternum suffered late in Game 3, must now win in Winnipeg in Game 5 on Friday night to extend their season.”Certainly can’t fault us in trying. It’s a disappointing finish Cam Talbot Jersey ,” said Dubnyk, who stopped 26 shots. ”It just shows you, too, you never know which plays are going to be the difference in the game.”The Wild were livid about one in particular, when Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey delivered a vicious-looking cross-check to Eric Staal’s neck that knocked Minnesota’s leading scorer to the ice during a Wild power play that went unnoticed by the officials. Morrissey had an assist on Scheifele’s goal and also helped thwart a Wild breakaway later in the game, and a red-faced coach Bruce Boudreau said afterward that Morrissey should have been ejected.”They decided not to call it because we were already on the power play,” Boudreau said. ”It cost us the game.”Across the hall, Morrissey adamantly defended his action as accidental.”He’s a big guy, and my stick ended up getting up a little bit on him,” Morrissey said. ”I would never try to do that to anybody. I’m not a dirty player.”Morrissey apologized to Staal later in the game, but that wasn’t any consolation for him or the Wild.”I’m the tallest guy on the ice. He cross-checked me in the neck. There’s not much more you can say. Everyone saw it. I don’t know how no one with stripes saw it,” Staal said.After a six-goal outburst in Game 3 that prompted Maurice to pull Hellebuyck after two periods, only his second early exit of the season, the Wild had trouble generating the same kind of organized and relentless attack. The Jets closed up the holes they gave the Wild through the neutral zone in Game 3, and the Wild simply weren’t as crisp with the puck.Hellebuyck, fittingly, was named earlier in the day one of the NHL’s three finalists for the Vezina Trophy that’s awarded annually to the best goalie in the league.”It definitely added a little more hop to my step. I don’t know if it changed my game too much because I prepare the same way and I do the same things every day,” Hellebuyck said. ”I guess it’s just a nice milestone that me and my family will enjoy.”The crowd, fired up about the opportunity the Wild had to even the series, produced plenty of collective groans after difficult saves by Hellebuyck after jeering him in Game 3 with the customary ”Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!” chant. One of Hellebuyck’s most important stops came in the opening minutes of the second period, when a 3-on-1 rush by the Wild set up Matt Dumba for a wrist try denied with a sprawling glove stop.After a tightly whistled game here Sunday night, there were only three penalties called.Scheifele was part of the sandwich hit with Ben Chiarot late in the third period of Game 3 on Parise that led to a broken sternum for the Wild’s all-time postseason scoring leader, a stunning setback for the home team revealed about four hours before Game 4.The agitation in the arena spiked a little later in the first period, when the Jets kept the puck in the Wild zone after a failed clearing attempt and Kyle Connor fed Scheifele with a slick give-and-go pass for the 1-0 lead right before the first intermission.Then Hellebuyck and the Jets defense took over.”That’s the guy who’s been there all year for us,” Morrissey said.NOTES: Jets defenseman Tyler Myers was out with a lower-body injury suffered in a collision with Marcus Foligno in Game 3. He was replaced by Tucker Poolman, a native of Iowa who played in college at North Dakota, on Winnipeg’s third blue line pairing with Chiarot. … Scheifele had a goal and five assists in four games against the Wild during the regular season. … Tyler Ennis took Parise’s spot, skating with Matt Cullen and Charlie Coyle on a new-look third line. Jason Zucker and Jordan Greenway joined Mikko Koivu, and Staal centered Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund. Coyle, Zucker and Niederreiter are without a point in the series.—