WINNIPEG – Jason Pominville had two goals and two assists to push the Western Conference leading Minnesota Wild past the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 at MTS Centre on Tuesday.
Minnesota opened the scoring 11:51 into the game with a goal from Nino Niederreiter. The forward fired a wrist shot past a screened Ondrej Pavelec for his 16th of the season. The Wild have now scored first 34 times this year, the third most among all 30 NHL teams.
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Pominville added to Minnesota’s lead in the final seconds of the first period by sneaking a slap shot into the net. He buried his second goal of the game 2:33 into the second by banging in a cross-crease pass from Charlie Coyle.
The Jets cut into their deficit roughly two minutes later thanks to Bryan Little’s eighth goal in nine games. Little grabbed a Jacob Trouba rebound and put it into the net off the backhand to make it 3-1. Winnipeg inched even closer before the period finished as Joel Armia scored with a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle.
Minnesota had a chance to restore its two-goal cushion 3:48 into the third period on a penalty shot but Mikael Granlund failed to score. The Wild were awarded the penalty shot after Dustin Byfuglien shot a discarded stick towards Granlund, who had the puck, in Winnipeg’s end.
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Pavelec left the game 6:15 into the second period with a lower-body injury shortly after giving up a third goal. Connor Hellebuyck turned away all 10 shots he faced in relief.
Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk made 38 saves to earn his 29th win of the season.
Drew Stafford logged three shots and two hits in 11:21 of ice time in his return to the Jets lineup. The forward missed the last six games with a lower-body injury.
Both teams face the Chicago Blackhawks in their next game. Minnesota hosts Chicago on Wednesday while Winnipeg welcomes the Blackhawks to town on Friday.
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