Hellebuyck stands tall, Jets win.

Connor Hellebuyck stood tall and helped the Jets defeat their divisional foes, the Nashville Predators, 4-1.

The rookie goaltender made 43 saves and has now nine wins since Ondrej Pavelec injured his knee on November 21.

"That's five in eight for us on the road and the last four," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "It's a long flight from Anaheim and a two-hour time change so you're worried about the first 10 minutes more than any other part of the hockey game, and they know it so they come with an awful lot of speed and an awful lot of jump. I almost think it was a benefit to [Hellebuyck] that they shot absolutely everything. There might have been some seam plays and some other plays that never developed, but it was just keep ripping it at the net. He was rested, he was the freshest guy in our lineup and he looked great."

Jets' Drew Stafford provided half the offense with two goals in the first half of the game. Ben Chariot scored his first of the season and Alex Burmistrov added an empty-net goal to round the scoring for Winnipeg.

"I thought it was Ben Chiarot's best game of the year," Maurice said. "He was fantastic. His jump, [he had] energy in his game."

Despite managing only 17 shots on net, the Jets benefited from a generous Pekka Rinne and from Hellebuyck's solid night to close the gap between them and the Colorado Avalanche, now just 1 point behind.Winnipeg is now just 5 points from a Wildcard spot.

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