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After the Winnipeg Jets lost Game 3 of the Western Conference final Isaiah Wynn Patriots Jersey , goaltender Connor Hellebuyck didn’t seem fazed and spoke like a confident veteran rather than a third-year player whose team appears to be unraveling.

The Vezina Trophy-finalist went as far to say he liked his game better than the guy about 200 feet across the rink – 14-year veteran Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 33 of 35 shots and improved to 10-3 in the postseason.

”I like my game, I like it a lot more,” Hellebuyck said after making 26 saves in Wednesday’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. ”I like my details and will continue chugging away and getting better every single day.”

If Game 3 is any indication of the type of game Vegas will bring into Friday night’s Game 4, Hellebuyck needs to get better urgently.

”I think we’ve been capitalizing on some chances we’ve been getting,” Vegas forward Cody Eakin said after Thursday’s practice. ”Getting to the dirty area, smackin’ `em into the blue paint. He’s a heck of a goalie and he’s played very well all season and all playoffs for them. It’s just one of things where you have a game plan, you stick to it. Whether it’s the bounces or capitalizing on a rush or whatever it may be, we’re just trying to finish every chance we get.”

Like 35 seconds into Game 3, when a premature poke-check by Hellebuyck led to a goal by Jonathan Marchessault. Hellebuyck’s ill-advised mistake allowed Marchessault to use a forehand-backhand deke and give Vegas the momentum early with a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, Hellebuyck went behind the net and lifted the puck to clear it but Erik Haula was there to knock it down and feed James Neal, who found the open net to give Vegas a 2-1 lead just 12 seconds after Mark Scheifele tied the score.

Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice refuses to blame his goalie, though, and seemed fine Thursday, with the rather braggadocious manner Hellebuyck speaks with Cheap Brian O'Neill Jersey , despite allowing three or more goals for the second consecutive game and fifth time in his last nine games.

”It’ll be across the crease, no chance in hell he’s getting that puck, and he believes he can stop that puck,” Maurice said. ”I don’t plan to stomp that mentality. He believes he can stop everyone, and then he moves on pretty darned well. He doesn’t carry it too heavy with him. He’s got confidence in the right way.”

So does Fleury, who leads the NHL with a career-best 1.70 goals-against average during the playoffs. And if the Jets can’t get more production outside of Scheifele, they’ll find themselves on the brink of elimination after Friday’s game.

Scheifele, who now owns the NHL record for most goals scored on the road in a single playoff with 11, has 14 goals and six assists in 15 games. But for a dangerous team that gotten this far because of its depth, guys like Vegas defensemen Nate Schmidt, Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore have shown they can keep the Jets in their own zone or disrupt things in the neutral zone.

”A few miscues and they made us pay for it – that can’t happen,” said Scheifele, who has three of the Jets’ seven goals in this series. ”They’re going to have their games, we’re going to have our games. We can’t sulk on this too long. We gotta pick ourselves up and be ready for a big game on Friday.”

The Jets showed some life in the third period on Wednesday, and certainly outplayed what appeared to be a weary Vegas team over the final 20 minutes Isaiah Wynn Youth Jersey , but Fleury was outstanding in coming up with tremendous highlight saves to preserve the win.

”I think we’re starting to get a better understanding of how we have to attack and how we have to approach the net,” Maurice said. ”At 2-1, we’re all aware that we’re down 2-1, but it’s still fairly early in the series. Both teams are going to come out guns-a-blazing and try to give the other team nothing.”

History is against the Jets, who are trailing in a series for the first time this postseason. Teams with a 2-1 lead in the conference final (or NHL semifinals) have won the series 35 of 43 times (81.4 percent) since 1975.

And unless Hellebuyck’s confidence translates into keeping the puck out of his net, and Scheifele gets some help at the other end, history is bound to repeat itself.

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The Washington Capitals have never used more rookies during a single postseason than the half-dozen who helped Alex Ovechkin and Co. reach the Eastern Conference final.

They’re contributing in various ways, including with secondary scoring and a freedom from the past playoff failures that became a burden for Capitals veterans.

”Man, they gave us a big boost with their energy and enthusiasm,” said Matt Niskanen, a defenseman in his 11th NHL season. ”It’s infectious.”

It’s part of a league-wide trend, too: The 50 rookie skaters in these playoffs are the most since teams used 54 in 2005-06. That could be a reflection of teams having greater trust in young players arriving from junior hockey or college, or the need to stock rosters with cheap talent as a greater percentage of the salary cap is devoted to the elite.

”The way you build your hockey teams, those kids get a chance to play all season long. They get put in positions where they can succeed,” Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. ”Over the last 10 or 15 years Saquon Barkley Jersey , they’re more prepared.”

The Capitals advanced to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a series beginning Friday night by using five rookies during a clinching 2-1 overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. One of the fresh faces, Nathan Walker, assisted on a goal.

In Washington’s Game 5 win over Pittsburgh, another rookie, right wing Jakub Vrana, was bumped from the third line to the top one and delivered an assist on the tying score before putting the go-ahead goal in the net. And to think: Vrana played a tad under seven minutes in Washington’s opening playoff game, then was a healthy scratch for the second. Played every game since, though.

”I got an opportunity and I was ready,” said Vrana, a 22-year-old from the Czech Republic. ”I didn’t get a whole lot of minutes at the beginning, but even if I get eight minutes, I still go out there and do my best and try to make those eight minutes count.”

Similarly, defenseman Christian Djoos sat out Washington’s first two games but played in the other 10.

Vrana and Djoos were expected to appear in Game 1 at Tampa Bay, perhaps joined by forwards Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd, who skated together on the third line at practice Wednesday. Walker and another rookie who faced Pittsburgh Vontaze Burfict Bengals Jersey , Shane Gersich, are also part of the group that matched the franchise record of six playoff rookies set in 1989-90.

”There’s two kinds of things that happen with young guys. They’re naive and just play and have a lot of fun and it doesn’t bother `em. … There’s other ones that get the starry-eyed, saucer-eyed (look) and they have to sort of work through that,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”Early in the Columbus series, (Vrana) had a little bit of those saucer eyes. And then he sort of grew out of it.”

The Lightning’s trio of rookies combined for 12 playoff points through two rounds: Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. Cirelli has played a key defensive center role after getting into just 18 regular-season games.

There are fewer youngsters in the Western Conference final.

Alex Tuch, who turned 22 on Thursday, has four goals and three assists as the sole postseason rookie for the Golden Knights. Their opponent, Winnipeg, has three rookies, but only one has logged regular playing time – left wing Kyle Connor broke out with two goals and an assist in Game 5 of the second round against Nashville, then had two assists in the Jets’ 5-1 victory over the Predators in Game 7 on Thursday night.

Back in 2013-14, his first full season as an NHL coach, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper used nine rookies in the playoffs, a total no team has eclipsed since.

That Lightning club was swept in the first round.

”I don’t think we were necessarily prepared for it Cheap P.J. Hall Jersey ,” said Tyler Johnson, one of four members of that precocious crop who also has appeared in the playoffs for Tampa Bay this time around. ”We didn’t know what to expect.”

That’s the thing about newcomers, of course. They don’t know how they’ll react to being in the faster, more physical, higher-quality, higher-pressure playoffs.

Nor do coaches or teammates.

”There’s a little bit of the enthusiasm of the youth, something about the young guys. They’ve always got the smile on. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they’re naive,” Trotz said. ”Sometimes they just sort of need a little bit of tightening from their peers or their coach.”

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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno, AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, and AP freelancer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

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