WINNIPEG — A series-opening game that saw 13 goals scored was somehow marked by a single save at the most pivotal moment.
Sure, Connor Hellebuyck made nine of them while the Winnipeg Jets appeared blinded by the whiteout through the first 10 minutes of this thriller against the Colorado Avalanche, and that was crucial.
But when this year’s Vezina favourite flashed to the top of his crease and calmly grabbed a shot labeled for the top corner of his net in the 18th second of the 11th minute, he truly reinforced the message he was sending his team from puck drop to final buzzer — that he wouldn’t allow the nerves they were experiencing to get to him.
“I think that’s what makes him so valuable,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry, who scored two of Winnipeg’s goals in this 7-6 win at Canada Life Centre on Sunday.
Never mind that Hellebuyck was beaten by Valeri Nichushkin just four minutes earlier to surrender a 1-0 lead to the Avalanche.
He wasn’t to blame for that one, nor could he be faulted on the goals Miles Wood and Nathan MacKinnon scored 18 seconds apart just five minutes after he made this key first-period save that snatched away what appeared to be a sure one from Josh Manson.
In that one instant, Hellebuyck did for the Jets what Alexandar Georgiev was so far away from doing in this game for the Avalanche.
“He calmed us down,” said Josh Morrissey.
He stopped himself from calling Hellebuyck’s stop on Manson a game-saver but added, “If all of a sudden, it’s 2-0, it could’ve gone really south, and that gave us a spark before we ended up going shot for shot the rest of the period.”
The Jets scored the next two goals, got one more from Mark Scheifele after MacKinnon followed up the one from Wood, and they knew Hellebuyck had helped them dodge the bullet that could’ve killed them.
“It was a huge save,” Morrissey concluded.
How it was made — with such poise and grace under the pressure of the violent storm brewing all around his crease — set the tone for how this game would be decided.
Stylistically, and by the shot totals (46-23), it favoured the high-octane Avalanche, with Lowry, Kyle Connor, Morrissey and Jets coach Rick Bowness all repeating the same mantra: “That wasn’t how we drew it up.”
But one thing the Jets felt was predictable was that Hellebuyck would make the difference for them if he needed to, and none of them were surprised to see him do exactly that.
Had he been in Colorado’s net, the Avalanche would have likely achieved a galvanizing win and nullified the raucous atmosphere Jets fans clad in all-white provided.
Instead, Georgiev gave up four goals on the first 10 shots he faced. He looked like he was prepared to give up many more than the three others that slipped through him. And the Avalanche never appeared more confident in the game than when he was absent from their net — as they pushed to erase a two-goal deficit with an extra attacker over the last three minutes of play.
The Avs got one back. They even found a way to score six on Hellebuyck.
But they never rattled him.
“I think with him — and it’s something that I’ve learned and something I’ve tried to establish in my own game — his mentality’s incredible,” said Gabriel Vilardi. “He’s calm, he’s always the same. He could give up five goals in a period and you know he’s going to keep playing the same way, and it’s good to see. As a forward, as a player up front, you know that’s what you want to see from your goalie.”
It enabled the Jets to win despite being so far off the game plan that netted them the majority of their 52 wins in the regular season, including wins over the Avalanche in all three games prior to Sunday.
“Give the guys credit,” said Bowness, “We found a way to win a game that wasn’t played out the way it was supposed to be structured. Find a way, and we’ll take that every day.”
He called Hellebuyck’s influence on the outcome “huge,” and said none of the goals he gave up could be pinned on him.
“Some of them had seeing eyes, some of them were bouncing all over the place, some of them were just giveaways on our part,” Bowness said, adding the typically stingy Jets would focus on cleaning up their decisions with the puck in all three zones to avoid trading chances with the Avalanche in Tuesday’s Game 2.
We’re not sure what Avalanche coach Jared Bednar would want to change for that one, other than his goaltender.
Georgiev couldn’t come up with a single save that would have the impact of Hellebuyck’s on Manson. And in a game decided by a razor-thin margin, that proved as costly as what he allowed.
Despite Georgiev’s performance inspiring plenty of doubt, turning to Arvid Holm wasn’t a viable option for Bednar.
The third-string goaltender had never played a game at this level, and he had only played 16 this season — posting an .887 save percentage in 12 appearances with Colorado’s AHL affiliate and not doing much better in four games for the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. He was only dressed because Justus Annunen, who had a .928 save percentage in 14 starts with the Avalanche this season, was too sick to be in uniform.
When asked if Annunen would be available for Game 2, Bednar said, “I don’t know.”
“I don’t know if he’s going to be healthy enough to play or not,” he added. “He wasn’t healthy enough to play tonight and we’ll see what we see in the morning…”
If the Avalanche see more of what they saw from their crease on Tuesday night, they’ll be heading back to Denver down 2-0 in this series.
The Jets expect to see the same reliable version of Hellebuyck, and they also expect to play much better in front of him.
