Bless you Hellebuyck!

The Winnipeg Jets steal away a game one win thanks to a 48 save effort from Connor Hellebuyck to take a 1-0 lead in their series with the Nashville Predators.

Nashville controls play for most of the game and out-shoots the Jets 20-4 – shot attempts of course favor Nashville as well by a 31-12 margin… But it’s the Jets that take a 1-0 lead after a nifty effort by Bryan Little to stick handle through a swarm of Preds gets the puck to Brandon Tanev who is all alone on the other side to push the puck pask Pekka Rinne. Connor Hellebuyck continues his shutout streak that is now over his last seven period of playoff play.

The second period carried on much like the first with the Predators controlling play, getting the majority of shots and Connor Hellebuyck stopping everything he saw (with some post help in one case) – The Jets made it 2-0 as the second line got to work with some nice puck handling from Nik Ehlers and finished off by Paul Stastny. From there, the Jets seemed to finally settle down and play more of their game and started finding holes in the Preds defense. After a very soft penalty to Blake Wheeler was killed, the Jets quickly made it 3-0 thanks to Mark Scheifele.

The Predators put in Jesse Sarros in place of Pekka Rinne to start the third period and the Preds respond with a quick goal early from a nice passing play capped by Kevin Fialla. Hellebuyck’s shutout streak that covered four games, ends at 163 minutes. From there the Predators threw everything they could at the Jets but Connor Hellebuyck slammed the door shut for a 48 save win.