It’s a season of cats and dogs living together and up is down and left is right.
On Friday night, Blake Wheeler potted his 200th NHL goal late in the third period to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild who continue to flounder in the schedule.
“You want to score goals that are meaningful,” Wheeler said. “It makes it a little more extra special. You just want to win games, 200 [goals] or not, it’s nice to contribute to a win.”
With number one goalie, Steve Mason, riding the pine, Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves to improve to 4-0-0 on the season.
“I thought we took the play to them until we got the lead, then it seems like we’re afraid to win, because all five games right now, we’ve been tied or ahead with less than 10 minutes to go in the third period,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
The Jets’ Patrik Laine struck twice and Nikolaj Ehlers added a goal for Winnipeg.
The Wild got goals from Chris Stewart, Mikko Koivu and Marcus Foligno as they dropped to 1-2-2 on the season.
“We’re fighting,” Minnesota forward Eric Staal said. “Obviously, being down two, and we kind of found our legs and got better and clawed our way back. But [it’s] frustrating right now losing that one in regulation. We’ve got to find ways to raise our compete and just get the job done.”
Paul Maurice notched his 600th NHL win in the victory.
“I don’t think there’s a significance to it. Most of them looked just like that. Hold your breath for two and a half hours. I won’t think about it a whole lot. It’s nice” Maurice said.
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Jets highlights]
Devan Dubnyk took the loss on 26 saves.
“I think we can negate the swings by playing better defense. I think we gave them their opportunities and I think we created a bunch (of our own) by good forechecks. We gave up too many chances to that high-powered an offense,” Minnesota’s Jason Zucker said after the game.
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