Hart makes 40 saves, Flyers shut out Jets

WINNIPEG -- Carter Hart made 40 saves for his first shutout of the season, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-0 at Canada Life Centre on Saturday.

"It's definitely something cool, growing up as a kid, 'Hockey Night in Canada' Saturday nights was always on in the household," said Hart, who is from Sherwood Park, Alberta. "It's always something kind cool and kind of a Canadian trademark, so it's kind of fun to play in these games."
Noah Cates and Owen Tippett each had a goal and an assist for the Flyers (21-21-9), who have a three-game point streak (1-0-2). Rasmus Ristolainen had two assists.
"Carter just was solid. He made some really good saves," Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. "Everybody contributed. It's great we scored four goals, but I liked our checking. I thought our positioning was good. That's a really good offensive team. That's a big team, but our sticks were good. That's the part of the game I liked."

Connor Hellebuyck allowed four goals on 30 shots before being pulled in the third period for the Jets (31-19-1), who have lost three in a row and five of their past seven. David Rittich made three saves.
"There is a price to pay in this league," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "You have to work, you have to compete, and you have to do it every night. As the season progresses, it gets harder. Right now, you're seeing what we're seeing, as soon as there is a little adversity -- we handled it well early in the year -- we're not handling it well right now. The difference makers, you can't even find them out there. Until we make that commitment again to play as a team and we want to win, this is what you get."
Cates made it 1-0 at 15:15 of the first period, scoring after getting to a loose puck in front.
"Being hungry around the net, it's just got to be my game," Cates said. "It's how I need to score goals in this league. It's just kind of sticking with it and going from there."

Kieffer Bellows extended it to 2-0 at 11:53 of the second period with his first goal of the season, scoring on a sharp-angle shot from the left face-off circle.
"We haven't loved our last few games and we've got one left going into the [NHL All-Star] break," Jets forward Adam Lowry said. "It feels like the sky is falling a bit, but we're still in a good spot. … Obviously we're disappointed with the effort, disappointed with the outcome, three games in a row that we've kind of let slip away. You're going to want to stop this slide as soon as we can."
The Flyers were playing their last game before the break.
"We're feeling good about ourselves going into the break with a win," Hart said. "We've had a really good month here in January (8-4-2) and we've got a couple of more big months coming down the stretch."

Tippett's breakaway goal off a Ristolainen stretch pass pushed the lead to 3-0 at 3:11 of the third, and Tony DeAngelo scored on the rush at 6:48 for the 4-0 final, chasing Hellebuyck.
"If [Winnipeg scores] one early, it puts a whole different light on that [third] period," Tortorella said. "The third one, it kind of sets them back a little bit. And then the fourth one, it really hurts. Again, it comes to the checking. We had good sticks. We had the middle of the ice quite a bit tonight. We blocked a lot of shots the second half of the game."
NOTES: The Flyers are 15-0-1 this season when leading after two periods. … Philadelphia next plays Feb. 6, when it hosts the New York Islanders. … Cates, who had his sixth multipoint game of the season, has three goals in his past five games. … Bellows, who was playing in his 14th game this season, last scored April 29, 2022, for the Islanders in his final game last season. … Flyers forward Zack MacEwen had surgery Saturday to repair a fractured jaw sustained in a 3-2 overtime loss at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. He will be out five weeks. … Philadelphia used 11 forwards and seven defensemen. … The Jets' final game before the break is against the St. Louis Blues at home Monday.