Wild get back in series with 6-2 win over Jets

In St Paul Sunday, Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves to help the Minnesota Wild stifle the Winnipeg Jets’ offense in a 6-2 win to get back in their series; they now trail 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Six skaters scored for the Wild including Mikael GranlundEric Staal, Matt Dumba, Jordan Greenway, Zach Parise, and Marcus Foligno.

“We needed [that win],” Parise said. “That’s the way playoffs go; you go from losing two [in Winnipeg], thinking it’s the end of the world, and all of a sudden we’ve got some life. We want to tie this series up in the next game, but it was a good start for us.”

This win took a great deal of pressure off the Wild as they head to Game 4.

“Well, I think everybody knows if we lose Game 3 how difficult it is,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Especially playing these guys. We didn’t want to get down 0-3. I think desperation is the best word. When we’re down 0-2 it’s still a big hurdle. They will be a lot better next game.”

Blake Wheeler and Tyler Myers scored

“It’s one game in a seven-game series,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t play anywhere near our level tonight. … We need to play with team speed, like we were able to accomplish the second half of both Games 1 and 2. (At) 2-1, they came out extremely hard, it’s not a death sentence by any means in this building. But when that second period started, we weren’t able to get faster. And that’s when the game changed. They stuck with it, and we just weren’t able to get to our speed we needed to get to.”

The Jets were delayed in arriving in St Paul because of a blizzard in the upper Midwest; they did not get to St Paul until Sunday morning.

“I don’t know if it made us worse, but I can say for a fact that it certainly didn’t make us better,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said.

[WATCH: All Jets vs. Wild highlights | Complete Jets vs. Wild series coverage]

Connor Hellebuyck made 16 saves in a bad outing and yielded six goals through two periods and was given the hook after the second intermission.

 

Steve Mason finished the game and made seven saves in the third period.

“It’s the playoffs. Everybody needs to win, everybody wants to win. We wanted to win today, and we didn’t get it done,” the Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers said.