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Recap: Utah HC @ Jets

Nov 5, 2024; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets forward Nino Niederreiter (62) skates in on Utah Hockey Club goalie Karel Vejmelka (70) during the third period at Canada Life Centre. Mandatory Credit: Terrence Lee-Imagn Images

Tuesday evening represented the first visit of the Utah Hockey Club to Manitoba as they took on the hometown Winnipeg Jets….lets find out how things played out.

GAME RECAP

When the puck dropped, the Jets had more jump in their step and that helped them to double up Utah in shots in the opening frame. However, both franchises played a tight defensive game, so good scoring chances were few & far between. Connor Hellebuyck and Karel Vejmelka ended up being flawless in the 1st frame, so the teams heading to the dressing room with the game all knotted up.

Utah picked up the pace in the middle frame, but the defensive systems for both squads kept the high danger opportunities to a minimum. Winnipeg’s penalty killers did a great job, killing off three man-advantages in the opening two periods and that gave the Jets’ powerplay a chance to break the scoreless game. The top PP unit stayed on for the entire 2 minutes as they buzzed around the offensive zone, finally hitting paydirt when Gabriel Vilardi deflected a Josh Morrissey point shot to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. Hellebuyck came up big late in the frame on a Utah 2 on 1, when the goalie not only denied the first shot but the rebound as well.

Seven minutes into the 3rd period, Nino Niederreiter raced back to the defensive end to lift a stick of an opponent and allowed Winnipeg to break out on a 2 on 2 counterattack. Adam Lowry fed the puck to Mason Appleton on the right wing, as El Nino hurried to join the rush. Apples hit the trailer with a pass in the high slot, allowing the Swiss winger to walk right in on the net and beat the goalie with a nice backhand fake. Winnipeg’s goalie had to make a couple more saves before the Jets sealed the game with an empty netter, as Niederreiter scored his 2nd goal of the game in his 900th NHL contest.

FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg 3 Utah 0

FINAL STATS

Shots: 28-21 WPG / Hits: 24-19 WPG / Face-Offs: 54.4% WPG / x Goals: 2.58 WPG – 1.04 UTH /

MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 69.2% WPG / High Danger Scoring Chances: 8 to 8 tie

SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN

SHOT CHARTS from MoneyPuck & Natural Stat Trick

ADVANCED STATS from MoneyPuck 

If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:

MoneyPuck: Utah Hockey Club vs. Winnipeg Jets – Tuesday November 5 2024 – MoneyPuck.com

NaturalStatTrick: Utah Hockey Club @ Winnipeg Jets, 2024-11-05

BOJA’s Observations:

  • The Winnipeg Jets are now one of only 6 NHL teams to ever start a year off with a 12-1-0 record. Congrats boys!! Our franchise is also on the NHL’s 3rd longest winning streak (4 gms), only behind the Florida Panthers (5 gms) and Carolina Hurricanes (7 gms).
  • Nino Niederreiter celebrated his 900th career game with a solid effort that resulted in his 6th & 7th goals of the season. A well-deserved 1st star of the game for the Jets’ Swiss Army Knife.
  • Connor Hellebuyck picked up his 39th career shutout, his first since blanking the Edmonton Oilers on opening night. Bucky now has a 2.33 GAA and a .917 save percentage. Seems Hellebuyck still has some work to do, since his Vezina wins came when he had .921 & .922 save percentages….but he’s off to a good start regardless.
  • All hail the penalty kill!! Winnipeg killed off all four of Utah’s man-advantages in this one, ending a string of games with a PPG against.
  • The Jets’ top six were very good last night, with the 1st (71.4%) and 2nd (77.2%) units controlling the expected goals.
  • The Winnipeg Jets goal differential at this point of the season is ridiculous, as they have out-scored the opposition 62 to 30 through 12 matches for a +32 differential. That is a whopping 12 goal lead on the NHL’s next best franchise (NYR @ +20).
  • Finally, I will congratulate our Prophesizing Padre as he did his best Babe Ruth imitation by calling a Jets’ shutout before the puck dropped. Keep it up Padre (and SaskatoonJet), as your contributions to the AIH community are appreciated.

My actual paid work is calling me, so I better wrap this up…..however, last night’s game was a perfect example of how the Winnipeg Jets became the toughest team in the NHL to score goals against. They absolutely smothered Utah’s offensive players with pressure and did an excellent job of keeping their opponents out of the dangerous areas. Utah’s 1.04 expected goals in the game was Winnipeg’s lowest total from any game this season, so I was happy to see that the Jets still have the ability to tighten things up defensively.

UP NEXT: Colorado Avalanche (6-7-0) @ Winnipeg Jets (10-1-0) – Thursday, November 7th @ 7 pm CST

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