The Minnesota Wild picked up a big win Friday night on home ice but needed a four-goal third period to ground the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2.
The rally came off the sticks of Nino Niederreiter, Eric Fehr and Eric Staal to erase a 2-0 deficit and give the Wild the lead.
“Two good teams, it was competitive the whole night, a fun game to be a part of,” Staal said. “Being down like we were, to be able to come back adds a little bit more emotion and energy to it within our building at home. I thought we played hard all night, competed, and we were just fortunate to be on the right side of it at the end.”
Alex Stalock made 26 saves to get the win after Devan Dubnyk was a scratch with an illness.
“You see right there, it ramps in a hurry,” Stalock said. “It’s a team … they had our number last year. We wanted to get back and establish that we’re the better team. We’re going to play them in the [Stanley Cup Playoffs] at some point, so why not start now.”
Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets who have lost two straight.
“The sky isn’t falling,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “On the road, there’s going to be momentum changes. They’re probably going to score a goal, more than likely, and we’ve got to face that adversity and do a little better with that.”
Zach Parise scored an empty-netter top seal it.
“We kind of let the game get away from us,” Jets forward Adam Lowry said. “They got a couple of good bounces and that’s the difference tonight … we weren’t ourselves in the third.”
[WATCH: All Jets vs. Wild highlights]
Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves in the loss.
“I thought our special teams were pretty good tonight but we’ve got to get a flow going, and it’s hard to get that momentum going when we’re constantly killing it,” Hellebuyck said after the loss.
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