WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) 鈥� Nino Niederreiter scored two goals and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Minnesota Wild 4-2 on Saturday.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Alex Iafallo also scored for Winnipeg, which improved to 9-1-2 in its last 12 games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 34 shots in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,325 at Canada Life Centre.
鈥淗e made the saves when he needed to, he鈥檚 been terrific (over) the last few games,鈥� Niederreiter said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a big reason why we are successful in the (defensive) zone. He keeps things calm in front of the net.鈥�
Niederreiter scored both of his goals from in close.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 where my office is,鈥� said Niederreiter, who has 12 goals on the season. 鈥淚 like to be in the paint.鈥�
Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored for Minnesota, which had won four in a row.
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 19 saves before being replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury to start the third period. Fleury stopped nine shots.
鈥淚 liked that we didn鈥檛 quit,鈥� Fleury said. 鈥淎ll of the guys battled hard right to the end. I think we all agree that it wasn鈥檛 our best night tonight. The good thing about it is we can forget about it, and we can play a little bit more like we can (on Sunday).鈥�
Fleury added that Gustavsson came out because he 鈥渨asn鈥檛 feeling great.鈥� Fleury was applauded for appearing in the 999th NHL game of his career.
鈥淭hat was flattering. It was pretty nice of the Jets fans to give a cheer like that,鈥� said Fleury, who is expected to play in his 1,000th game on Sunday.
鈥滻t鈥檚 pretty cool to get there, right? But it will be nice to be done with it.鈥�
Fleury is one win away from tying Patrick Roy for second-most victories in NHL history (551).
The Wild made it a one-goal game 20 seconds into the third period when Boldy converted a Kirill Kaprizov rebound from in front of a screened Hellebuyck.
Jonsson-Fjallby restored Winnipeg鈥檚 two-goal cushion at 2:46 when he fired a shot past Fleury from the side of the net.
鈥淲e talk a lot about timely saves and timely goals, we got both today,鈥� Jets coach Rick Bowness said. 鈥�(Hellebuyck) made a lot of timely saves and that timely goal 鈥� the fourth 鈥� was huge for us.鈥�
The Jets have held opponents to three goals or less in a franchise-record 24 consecutive outings and 30 games overall this season, which leads the NHL.
Iafallo opened the scoring at 3:59 of the first period. His shot from inside the blue line deflected off Minnesota鈥檚 Jared Spurgeon and past Gustavsson.
Niederreiter gave the Jets a 2-0 lead at 14:38 when he knocked in a rebound after a wraparound attempt by Adam Lowry.
Hellebuyck had to be sharp on a shot wired by Marco Rossi in the waning moments of the period.
Niederreiter made it 3-0 at 6:45 of the second when he scored on a rebound after a point shot from Josh Morrissey.
The Wild got on the board when Hartman scored a power-play goal 10:05 into the second. Hartman converted a Marcus Johansson pass from the side of the net.
UP NEXT
The Jets and Wild play again on Sunday in Minnesota.
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