Hellebuyck, Jets get best of Wild
Mark Scheifele scored both goals for Winnipeg and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for his seventh shutout this season, as the Jets beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-0, last night in Minneapolis to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Scheifele scored with 28 seconds left in the first period and tacked on an empty-netter with 11 seconds remaining, pushing the Wild to the brink of elimination.
Devan Dubnyk stopped 26 shots for the Wild, who played without star left winger Zach Parise because of a broken sternum suffered in Game 3.
After a six-goal outburst in their last appearance, the Wild had trouble generating the same kind of relentless attack and simply couldn’t slide any pucks past Hellebuyck.
Now the series shifts back to Winnipeg, with Game 5 on Friday night.
After a tightly whistled game here Sunday night, there were only three penalties called. The Jets closed up the holes they gave the Wild through the neutral zone in Game 3. Hellebuyck, who 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, bounced back in a big way from the previous game when he gave up six goals and was pulled after two periods.
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 defenseman Matt Dumba for a wrist try denied with a sprawling glove stop.
Scheifele was part of the sandwich hit with Ben Chiar- ot 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.
Elsewhere in the NHL — Hellebuyck, Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy are the finalists for the 2017-18 Vezina Trophy. All three are currently playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs, including Nashville’s Rinne, who is a finalist for the third time but has yet to win the award . . . .
The Calgary Flames fired head coach Glen Gulutzan yesterday after two years with the club. Assistant coaches Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard were also relieved of their duties. Gulutzan led the Flames to the playoffs in his first season in Calgary. The club missed the postseason this year after winning just twice in its final 11 regular-season games . . . .
Scottsdale, Ariz., police said Coyotes forward Richard Panik was arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave the a bar’s entrance on April 8.