NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Mark Scheifele scored his 26th goal of the season, reigning MVP Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced and the Winnipeg Jets ended their two-game skid by beating the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Tuesday night.
The Devils have lost back-to-back games after winning three in a row at the start of their Western Conference road trip. They traded veteran winger Ondrej Palat to the New York Islanders in a deal that was consummated before he left the arena prior to warmups and finalized during the first period.
Winnipeg, which entered the night eight points back of the second and final wild-card spot in the West, won for just the second time in five games. Scheifele got the Jets on the board 1:33 in, then Gabriel Vilardi, Cole Koepke and Nino Niederreiter scored in the second.
Hellebuyck, who is in line to be the U.S. starter at the upcoming Olympics, was sharp in bouncing back from allowing four goals in a 5-1 home loss to Detroit on Saturday.
New Jersey got goals from rookie Lenni Hameenaho and Swedish Olympian Jesper Bratt, and captain Nico Hischier scored with 1:46 left to make things interesting, but the offense couldn't quite make up for a series of mistakes. Hours after coach Sheldon Keefe credited defensive commitment and “giving up way less on the rush” for his team's recent success, all four goals against came on odd-man rushes.
That made life much more difficult for goaltender Jake Allen, who made some big saves among his 22 to keep the deficit from getting out of hand. There was little he could do when his teammates were repeatedly outnumbered skating back down the ice into their defensive zone by the opportunistic Jets.
Devils forward Cody Glass left with an undisclosed injury early in the second.
Jets: Visit Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
Devils: Host Nashville on Thursday night.
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