WINNIPEG – Jeremy Swayman stopped 35 shots for his third shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 on Thursday.
The win also halted the league-leading Bruins’ only regulation two-game losing skid of the season.
Trent Frederic, Pavel Zacha and Tomas Nosek, into an empty net, scored for Boston (51-11-5), which was playing the third game of a five-game road trip.
Swayman’s shutout was the eighth of his career and came in his 26th start of the season.
The Jets (38-28-3) are 2-2-0 in their past four games and 4-9-2 in their last 15 contests.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 shots for Winnipeg.
The Jets were 0-for-5 on the power play and Boston finished 0-for-3.
The Bruins led 2-0 after the first period.
Frederic got the visitors on the scoresheet just 50 seconds into the game. Tyler Bertuzzi picked up a loose puck while skating around the back of Winnipeg’s net and sent it out front to Frederic, who scored his 16th goal of the season.
It drew cheers from many of the fans in the Canada Life Centre stands wearing Bruins jerseys.
Zacha made it 2-0 after getting the puck following a Winnipeg turnover in Boston’s end. He fired a shot high over Hellebuyck’s glove at 13:22.
Swayman was in fine form, stopping Kyle Connor’s close-in shot midway through the first as Winnipeg outshot Boston 13-7.
Connor also hit a post midway through the second. He finished with six shots and has gone eight games without a goal.
Winnipeg held a 24-15 edge in shots on goal through two periods. Boston managed only a couple shots at Hellebuyck during a power play early in the third.
Nosek scored into the empty net with six seconds remaining.
GAGNER GONE
Jets head coach Rick Bowness announced after Thursday’s morning skate forward Sam Gagner will miss the remainder of the season because of hip surgery.
Gagner, 33, had surgery recently on one hip and will have another operation in two weeks on the other, Bowness said.
The 16-year veteran, from London, Ont., last played Feb. 28 and had eight goals and six assists in 48 games. He ends his first season in Winnipeg with a total of 1,015 NHL games for seven teams.
Winnipeg centre Pierre-Luc Dubois missed a fourth consecutive game with an upper-body injury. But star defenceman Josh Morrissey was on the ice after two games away with a lower-body injury.
UP NEXT
Jets: Head out for a back-to-back road trip, starting Saturday afternoon against the Nashville Predators and Sunday night versus the St. Louis Blues.
Bruins: Play a back-to back set on the road, beginning Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Wild and Sunday in Buffalo versus the Sabres.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2023.
