The Minnesota Wild netted four unanswered third period goals to down the Winnipeg Jets in a feisty, almost play-off type atmosphere in St. Paul.
Patrik Laine opened the scoring for the Winnipeg Jets late in the first period before Nikolaj Ehlers made it 2-0 on the power-play late in the second period; at that point, it would’ve been fair to expect the Minnesota Wild weren’t going to get back into this one and the points were lost.
Instead, they embarked on a mighty comeback in the third period. First, Nino Niederreiter netted his third of the season, before Eric Fehr added a second Wild goal to bring the scores even with just under ten minutes to play.
What followed was the game getting a little wild!
Adam Lowry caught Joel Eriksson Ek with an elbow and the game got a little crazy with Nick Seeler and Marcus Foligno both ending up in the Winnipeg bench.
The spark seems to bring even more life to a game that was already feisty. Clearly there is no love lost between these two teams that met in last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs and may well face each other again this year.
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Eric Staal eventually proved the difference-maker for the Minnesota Wild, collecting the rebound from a Matt Dumba shot and putting it home over Connor Hellebuyck to give his team their first lead of the game with just three minutes left.
It’s that sort of goal that makes a ton of difference between home advantage come season’s end.
Just one goal to net a win; those two points taken from the Jets as opposed to potentially allowing them a losers’ point could prove vital.
Zach Parise scored on an empty net to round out a brilliant third period performance, proving that the Minnesota Wild can fight a battle and come out the other side stronger with the two points.
It’s not every night that this sort of game goes your way, but when it does it’s almost more satisfying. The Winnipeg Jets had Minnesota’s number a fair bit last year; this year, different story!
Backup goaltender Alex Stalock stepped in on the night, with Devan Dubnyk out with an illness and thus not able to perform any of his usual heroics. Instead, Stalock took the game in his stride and ended the night with 26 saves.
Grinding it out with the Jets, the Minnesota Wild are proving that their early season form was no fluke; they are a team committed to getting the win for each other.