Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets were just too good for the young Utah Hockey Club Tuesday night.
The Utah Hockey Club has been so close in critical moments throughout the first month of the season.
And yet, they've had little to show for it.
Such was the case as Gabriel Vilardi broke a scoreless tie and Nino Niederreiter added the finishing blow as the Winnipeg Jets maintained their hot start with a 3-0 shutout of Utah Tuesday night at the Canada Life Centre.
"With the puck, we were trying to do a little bit too much," head coach Andre Tourigny said. "When you play a team with superior structure, it's tough to get them out of structure."
Utah (5-5-3) certainly had their chances, including on broken plays, as Tourigny said in his postgame remarks, but the Jets' stout defence was just too much for them to break down.
Possibly the best chance Utah had was late in the second period on a 2-on-1, created off a takeaway by Clayton Keller.
Keller had Logan Cooley up with him on the rush, but his speed cut down a chance to pass, and his shot comfortably found the belly of Connor Hellebuyck before Keller swatted the rebound into his glove.
Winnipeg (12-1-0) finally wore down Utah in the third period, converting on a rush chance and finding an empty net, both done by Niederreiter.
"We played well defensively, but we had grade-A chances where we didn't hit the net," Tourigny said. "We did a lot of good things today against a really good team."