Now that’s how you finish up in style.

The Winnipeg Jets brought the curtain down on their best regular season ever Wednesday night with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Mark Scheifele, the first-ever draft pick of the 2.0 era, capped off a memorable 82-game campaign with the highlight-reel winner inside Canada Life Centre.

“Amazing accomplishment for these guys to put a season together like that,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Anaheim Ducks goaltender Ville Husso saves a shot from Winnipeg Jets’ Kyle Connor during the first period.

“We’ve done some really outstanding things this year and when you start Day 1, Game 1, you don’t anticipate something like this happening. I can’t credit the players enough for what they’ve done. Just stayed focus, all 82 games. To get it here at the end was special, in front of all our fans.”

After capturing the Central Division, Western Conference and Presidents’ Trophy this past weekend the Jets added a couple more honours.

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who is a lock to win a third Vezina Trophy and might just capture the Hart Trophy as well, stopped 30 of 31 shots to earn the William Jennings Trophy for a second straight year as the Jets gave up the fewest goals among all 32 NHL teams.

Arniel said that was a goal of his group, which did some team building sessions during training camp and immediately identified defence as the top priority.

“Every group came back (and said) part of our identity, first and foremost, was going to be how we defended like we did last year,” said Arniel.

“The buy-in from these guys the last couple years has been amazing. It isn’t just defensive players. It’s your top players, your offensive guys. Your role players. It’s everybody believing in a certain way to play and that gives you the chance to win hockey games. You back it up with outstanding goaltenders. That makes it that much more difficult to play against us.”

That defensive commitment was on display during overtime. Josh Morrissey made a terrific play in his own end to break up a 2-on-1 rush, quickly turned the puck the other way and, along with Kyle Connor, fed Scheifele for the winner

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Winnipeg Jets’ Logan Stanley defends against Anaheim Ducks’ Alex Killorn during the first period.

Hellebuyck extended his own franchise record with his 47th win, one off the NHL’s all-time mark. He ended up leading the league in wins, shutouts (eight) and goals-against-average (2.00) and is second to Toronto’s Anthony Stolarz for top save-percentage (.925, just .001 behind) in a bid to become the third goalie in NHL history to lead in all four categories.

A huge save in the final minute of regulation against Anaheim’s leading scorer Troy Terry — who had beaten him earlier in the period to tie the game — ensured Tuesday’s game would go to overtime, which meant the Jets had just set a new franchise record for points in a year.

Scheifele’s winner gave them a 56-22-4 record and 116 points, which beats the 114 they had in 2017-18. Incredible stuff, but the Jets were ready to turn the page and look towards the playoffs as soon as the final buzzer sounded.

“Stanley Cup (is when) we’ll be satisfied,” said defenceman Neal Pionk, who had opened the scoring for the Jets with his 10th of the year.

A first-round series with the St. Louis Blues begins Saturday night at the downtown rink, with puck drop set for 5 p.m. The rest of the schedule will be announced Thursday.

“Can’t wait. Best time of year,” said Pionk. “Now we play for real.”

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Winnipeg Jets Dylan Samberg, Neal Pionk, Cole Perfetti and Nino Niederreiter celebrate Pionk’s goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the second period of the Jets’ 2-1 OT win in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

DON’T GET HURT

The best news for the Jets on Wednesday? Everybody who started the game finished it. That wasn’t the case last Saturday in Chicago (Nikolaj Ehlers got hurt and is now week-to-week) or Sunday at home against Edmonton (Dylan Samberg blocked a shot and didn’t return, fortunately escaping any damage).

There were some close calls, however.

Centre Vlad Namestnikov blocked a Jacob Trouba slapshot and went to the room near the end of the first period. On the same shift, Cole Perfetti took a stick to the face and left for repairs. Both were back for the middle frame, but Perfetti then fell awkwardly on his elbow and was slow to get up. In the third, he took a deflected puck to the face. Perfetti also recorded an assist on Pionk’s goal to hit 50 points for the first time in his career.

Prior to the game, Arniel said he was dressing his full lineup at the urging of players, who didn’t want to potentially sit a full week without game action. The idea was to fine-tune some details to stay sharp. Most importantly, they stayed healthy.

HOME, SWEET HOME

The Jets didn’t just have a great year on the ice. Business began to pick up off of it, too. Wednesday’s game was the eighth straight sellout, and the 16th overall, which increases their average attendance over 41 games to 14,366.

That’s the latest since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and a big spike from the average of 13,490 they drew last year.

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele celebrates his overtime game-winning goal against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

The Jets quickly sold out their first two home playoff dates so the streak is going to continue for the foreseeable future. No doubt the team hopes to keep the good times rolling as they finished with a sizzling 30-7-4 record in their own barn this year.

KEY PLAY

Scheifele’s 39th goal of the year sent the Jets into the playoffs on a hockey high.

THREE STARS

1. ANA G Ville Husso: 42 saves

2. WPG G Connor Hellebuyck: 30 saves

3. WPG C Mark Scheifele: Game-winning goal

TAKE A BOW, GENTLEMEN

The Jets announced their annual team award winners prior to puck drop.

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Jets winger Alex Iafallo goes to the Anaheim net and tips the puck in front of Ducks goalie Ville Husso on Wednesday during third-period action in Winnipeg.

Forward Alex Iafallo won the Dan Snyder Memorial Award, which is given to the player who “embodies perseverance, dedication and hard work without reward or recognition, so that his team and teammates might succeed.”

Morrissey captured the Community Service Award for his various charitable endeavours including with the Dream Factory, where he is an ambassador, and the True North Youth Foundation and Project 11

And Hellebuyck won the most Three Stars honour — the seventh time in the past eight years he’s done so. Of course, it came on a night when he was once again asked to take a post-game twirl for his work in the crease.

EXTRA, EXTRA

Winnipeg went 0-for-4 on the power play, including an extended 5-on-3. Anaheim went 0-for-1.

Jets’ healthy scratches were defencemen Ville Heinola, Colin Miller and Haydn Fleury and forward Dominic Toninato. Ehlers, along with forwards Gabe Vilardi and Rasmus Kupari, remain injured.

The Jets will hold practices on Thursday and Friday to get set for the start of the playoffs.

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck saves a shot from Anaheim Ducks’ Jackson LaCombe during the second period.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg

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Mike McIntyre Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.