Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck playing his best going into Knights series

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Another virtuoso performance by goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has the Winnipeg Jets four wins away from a berth in the Stanley Cup Final.

His playoff excellence comes on the heels of an outstanding season that saw the 24-year-old Michigan native become a finalist for the Vezina Trophy and set a record for U.S.-born goalies by winning 44 regular-season games.

Not bad for a guy who started the season as a backup.

“It’s (been) a long journey,” he said in the locker room Thursday night after the Jets routed the Nashville Predators 5-1 in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series. “A lot of hours and a lot of working hard.”

To be fair, Hellebuyck was not a typical bench player. Saturday, he faces a Golden Knights team that’s 8-2 in the playoffs, a record that includes four shutouts by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Jets had high hopes for him as a future star, only to watch him suffer through the growing pains of a 2016-17 season in which Winnipeg once again missed the playoffs.

So they brought in veteran free agent Steve Mason as the starter to allow Hellebuyck time to grow, and perhaps just as important, to challenge him.

It seems to have worked.

Hellebuyck took over after Mason was shelled in the first two games of the season. Hellebuyck won his first three starts and never relinquished his hold on the job.

“He went through a process last year like the rest of hockey club in being young and having to learn all the hard things about playing in the NHL,” coach Paul Maurice said. “He got pulled five times (last season). We weren’t able to play a game in front of him that gave him a chance, and he wasn’t able to be as consistent as he’s been all year for us this year. He put in all the time he needed to in the summer to get big and strong and come back.

“A year in a goalie’s life makes such a big difference. He was knocking pucks in the corner and clearing out the front (Thursday night). He just looked so calm.”

After the Jets squandered a chance to clinch at home in Game 6, he bounced back with the 36-save effort on the biggest stage of his career in Game 7.

That resilience has been a trademark for Hellebuyck. He allowed five or six goals on seven occasions in the regular season and came back with a win in the next game in six of those games.

Hellebuyck is enjoying his first postseason.

After cutting more than a half-goal per game off his average this season — 2.89 to 2.36 — his goals-against average in the playoffs is an identical 2.36 through 11 games. His save percentage of .924 looks very much like his regular-season mark of .922.

Hellebuyck knows he has plenty of work ahead in stopping the Knights, but he has allowed himself at times to think about where he and his team are compared with expectations entering the season.

“I do look at it as a whole, and I’m very happy with how hard I worked, but I never really changed how hard I work; I just continued working the way I always did,” he said. “I just believed in myself and got a whole new system and organization around me, and it just propelled me even more.”

That ride continues against the Knights — with the winner of their series needing four more wins to hoist the Stanley Cup.

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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.