Hellebuyck makes 17 saves, Jets shut out Sharks

WINNIPEG -- Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves for the Winnipeg Jets in a 1-0 win against the San Jose Sharks at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday.

It was Hellebuyck's third shutout this season and 35th in the NHL.

"He didn’t have a lot of work, but he had some timely saves,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “Early in the third there, they had a couple of really good chances that he stopped. In the second period, their chances weren't very many, but they came in little bunches there, in a hurry, and he made big saves.”

Morgan Barron scored for the Jets (32-14-5), who have won two in a row after losing their previous five (0-4-1).

“We had 84 shot attempts. We had more than enough scoring chances to score more than one goal,” Bowness said. “Give their goalie a ton of credit. Huge saves. We were all over the net. Just keep pushing. If we can create that much offense, the puck will have to go in soon.”

Kaapo Kahkonen made 38 saves for the Sharks (14-33-5), who were playing their first game since Jan. 31.

“Frustration, really. Obviously, we’ve been off for a while here,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “You could see there were a lot of missed opportunities for us to generate way more offense than we did. It looked like we tried to do the right thing, but we just weren’t. Our timing was off for sure, and obviously Kaapo played well, but we just weren’t efficient with the puck tonight.

“A lot of our problems were turnovers. I thought structurally we were pretty good defensively. It’s tough to be in great structure when you turn it over as much as we did tonight, but there was definitely some positives to pull out of tonight.”

The Jets took a 1-0 lead at 17:47 of the first period. Adam Lowry's redirection of Neal Pionk's shot from the right point deflected in off Barron in front.

“[The Sharks] play hard,” Barron said. “They’re one of those teams, you see it a lot on the rush, they backtrack really well. It kind of eliminates a lot of our rush chances. We had to try to create off of the cycle tonight, and as the game went on I felt we did a better and better job of that.”

It was Barron's ninth goal of the season, an NHL career high, but his first since Jan. 4 (14 games).

“I wasn’t sure if it hit me, but that one hit me," Barron said. "It kind of bounced off my glove and I saw it trickle in. ... We didn’t give up too much, and when we did, [Hellebuyck] was there to make the save. It was a tight checking game for the most part.”

Jets forward Mark Scheifele kept it a one-goal game at 17:05 of the second period when he swatted Anthony Duclair's backhand attempt off the goal line.

"Yeah, a lot of mini sticks," Scheifele said. "That's exactly what it was. You know, I don't think [Hellebuyck] knew where the puck was, so, a defensive play comes out of me every once in a while."

Winnipeg then limited San Jose to just five shots on goal in the third period.

“I think maybe we passed up on some shots coming into the O-zone," Sharks forward Luke Kunin said. "We weren’t moving our feet as much as we could have to generate some more offensive-zone chances. But first game back, maybe that’s the reason why. I thought there were good areas of our game, and obviously a good team we played against, but we’ve got to find ways to get more looks, more second chances on pucks to the net.”

NOTES: The Jets have scored four goals in four games since returning from the All-Star break. ... Hellebuyck has 25 wins this season, the seventh time he has reached the mark in the NHL. He is the fifth U.S.-born goaltender to have at least seven 25-win seasons, joining Ryan Miller (nine), Tom Barrasso (nine), John Vanbiesbrouck (eight) and Jonathan Quick (seven). ... Sharks forward Nico Sturm left the game at 9:26 of the third period after he was hit into the boards by Jets defenseman Logan Stanley. There was no update postgame. ... Sharks forward Mikael Granlund had three shots in 19:09 of ice time in his return after missing six games because of an upper-body injury. … San Jose defenseman Mario Ferraro had one hit and two blocks in 25:17 of ice time in his return after missing four games with a lower-body injury.