GAMEDAY: Red Wings at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets lost the opener of their eight-game homestand on Thursday night when they fell to the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in overtime. The Jets look to rebound when the Detroit Red Wings visit Canada Life Centre on Saturday night. It will be the second and final meeting between the two teams this season.

Connor Hellebuyck remains one win away from 300 career victories after missing out on beating Anaheim on Thursday. He will get another shot at that milestone with the Red Wings in town this evening. Hellebuyck will have the chance to be the third-fastest goalie to reach 300 wins on Saturday night when he plays the 537th game of his impressive career. The only goaltenders to accomplish the feat faster are Andrei Vasilevskiy (490GP) and Jacques Plante (521GP). He is currently on a season-high 11-game point streak (9-0-2).

“Yeah, of course, he's been awesome for us. So, we just want to go out and play our game and give it our all and give it our best chance,” said Mark Scheifele.

“And that's kind of the focus. And obviously that's kind of on the back burner. But obviously, we all know about it.”

The Jets were so close to getting Hellebuyck his 300^th win on Thursday but they let a 3-2 lead in the third period slip away before falling in overtime. There were lots of things to be happy with about the team’s performance but also things that they didn’t like.

“We let our guard down in a couple different times with some key mistakes. You know, they capitalized on it, obviously, with the amount of zone time, we had the posts we had that could go anyway,” said assistant coach Dean Chynoweth.

“Early on, it didn't. And you're in a game, and we've got to find a way to win those.”

The Red Wings come to town having won three straight after Derek Lalonde was replaced by Todd McLellan right after the Christmas break. Detroit just missed the playoffs last season and general manager Steve Yzerman was expecting them to be at least a wild card team in the East this season.

“Yeah, we're expecting a tough test. They have a good squad over there, obviously, some pretty elite skill up front,” said Scheifele.

“And obviously, with a new coaching change, Todd's been in this league for a long time and has had success. So, we expect a tough test.”

The Jets have won four-in-a-row against the Red Wings after dropping three of their previous four meetings. They have scored just two power play goals (2-for-16) in their past eight games against Detroit. They have also scored four or more goals in five straight games and have held Detroit to two or fewer goals in four straight games.