Jets grounded in St Paul, 6-1

In St Paul, Filip Gustavsson made 28 saves and the Minnesota Wild downed the Winnipeg Jets, 6-1 on Wednesday night.“The Wild scored six, right? So, that’s reinforcing for us,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “Everyone’s excited about that.”

Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first period off a strike from Mason Shaw.

Calen Addison  pushed the lead to 2-0 early in the second period.

Marcus Foligno hit for the first of his two on the night to make it 3-0 for the Wild.

“We shot a lot of pucks, we kept it simple,” Foligno said. “We went to the net. We just played our game. You’re going to see the results. It’s more goals. It’s not always pretty, but we’re going to get our points and stuff from team play.”

Kyle Connor finally got the Jets on the board in the second to cut the Wild advantage to 3-1.

“I’m not a believer in these ‘learn lessons,'” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “I believe there are harsh reminders of how to play this game the right way. Harsh reminders of how to win in this league.

“One of the things we talked about after the game is these teams are chasing us now. All right, two things with that: take pride in the fact that you’re there, but also take the responsibility that comes with being on a good team. There’s a responsibility that comes with that, being prepared and playing the right way. None of those things we did tonight.”

In the third period, the Wild pushed harder on the pedal and potted three more goals.

“We only played 10 good minutes of the game,” Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “That’s not going to do very well for you. We spent a lot of time in the penalty box; that’s also not going to do well for you. It’s not a good recipe to only play hard for 10 minutes of the game.”

Kirill Kaprizov hot on the power play with 26 seconds gone in the third for a 4-1 lead to the Wild.

Minnesota improved to 9-8-2.

Foligno hit for his second at 6:51 of the third to make it 5-1.

Matt Boldy scored off the power play midway through the third for a 6-1 final.

“I think it was time for us to break through,” Boldy said. “It’s obviously hard to score goals, but we’ve got to do a better job. I think tonight’s a step in the right direction for sure.”

The Jets dropped to 11-6-1.Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves in the Winnipeg loss.