WINNIPEG – Coming off a tough OT loss on Friday, the Winnipeg Jets had no time to look back as they will be entering a very tough stretch of games against some very tough Western Conference opponents starting Sunday versus the Minnesota Wild. The Wild were coming off a 3-0 victory against the Ducks and got into Winnipeg late Saturday night. The Jets controlled most of the play but had some tense moments late as they almost blew a 5-1 lead and hung on for a huge 5-4 win over the Wild.
“It’s never over in [the NHL],” Blake Wheeler said. “That’s a good lesson to learn early on.”
After some miscommunication ten seconds into the game and some standing around the Wild jumped out to a 1-0 lead right off the opening draw. The Jets came right back and got the momentum and scored five unanswered goals and chased Wild starting goalie Darcy Kuemper early in the second period. The Jets sat back and had some unlucky bounces and the Wild snuck back into the game and made things very tense in the MTS Centre.
“We were quick,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “We moved the puck well and were efficient with our offense. Pucks to the net.”
Winnipeg started Michael Hutchinson who stopped 26 of 30 shots to get his 3rd win of the season. He made some huge stops in the final couple minutes to preserve the two points.
Wild goalie Kuemper gave up four goals on 18 shots before being relieved by Devon Dubnyk who stopped 14 of 15 shots and ended up taking the loss.
“I wanted to stay in there and see if we could have a chance to come back,” Dubnyk said. “For a little bit there in the second period, it’s hard to play when you’re thinking about whether you’re capable of certain movements, but we worked on it between the second and third.”
Winnipeg got goals from Bryan Little his fourth, Andrew Ladd his second, Nik Ehlers his third, Drew Stafford had a pair his fourth and fifth of the season.
Minnesota got goals from Jason Zucker his first, Mikko Koivu his third, Justin Fontaine his first , Zach Parise notched his seventh to round out the scoring.
The Jets penalty kill saved the day as they killed four of five Wild power plays and came up with a key kill in the last couple of minutes when Dustin Byfuglien was called for boarding Jason Pominville. This was a back and forth battle between two teams who don’t like each other and have become division rivals who are always neck and neck in the standings.
The Jets were able to roll all four lines for the whole game as everybody played and contributed to this big win.
Next up for the Jets are the LA Kings who come to town Tuesday night.
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