WINNIPEG – It was a slow start but a strong finish as the Winnipeg Jets picked up another victory on home ice.
After trailing by two in the early going, the Jets reeled off seven straight goals to beat the Minnesota Wild 7-2 on Monday at Bell MTS Place.
“We were down two and I didn’t thing we had a bad start.” head coach Paul Maurice said.
“The first four chances of the game were ours, so we like that. And then a couple of mistakes and the puck is in the back of the net, but our game really didn’t change.”
The Jets had goals from seven different players as Joel Armia, Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Mathieu Perreault, Kyle Connor, Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler all found the net. And Winnipeg continues to get production from their fourth line as they accounted for two more goals, including their first goal of the game to turn the tide.
“The (Matt) Hendricks’ line with Armia and Perreault, they’ve been playing great for us.” Wheeler said. “They’re playing with a tonne of energy. They made a great play, got us going, got a little bit of the momentum on our side. We closed that period out strong, so that’s a lot of times their job. A lot of times they get overlooked for the energy they bring and they had a great night tonight and got us going.”
“We were able to stay with it.” Perreault said. “We were down two early and we never thought we were out of this game and we battled back and you saw the results.”
“I liked our game.” Armia said. “I think we worked hard and got pretty good chances and I had two points today, so it was good.”
Wheeler, Scheifele and Connor all finished with three point nights. Connor Hellebuyck needed to make just 17 saves as the Jets allowed a season low 19 shots on goal.
The Jets have at least a point in their last eight straight home games and have just two regulation losses in 11 games at Bell MTS Place this season. Winnipeg has beaten Minnesota in all of their first three meetings of the season and are now 5-1 against Central Division opponents.
Jason Zucker and Chris Stewart replied for the Wild in the loss.
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The Wild opened the scoring just past the eight minute mark of the first period. Charlie Coyle raced in with the puck on a 3-on-1. He spotted Zucker who made a quick move before sending in the backhand. Gustav Olofsson also had an assist on Zucker’s team leading 13th goal of the season.
The Wild appeared to score again just minutes later. Coyle’s original shot was kicked out right to Zack Mitchell and he made the deposit into the wide open net. But Jets head coach Paul Maurice used a coaches challenge and upon review it was ruled offside, so it was no goal.
But the Wild would get goal number two only moments later anyway. On the very next shift Matt Cullen spotted a wide open Stewart in front and he buried the one-timer for his seventh goal of the campaign. Marcus Foligno also drew an assist and the Wild had a two goal upper hand.
Just minutes later the Jets cut into the Wild’s lead. Josh Morrissey’s point shot was tipped in front by Matt Hendricks. Alex Stalock made the
original save but Armia was right there to whack in the loose puck. His fourth goal of the season made it 2-1.
Just 1:28 later the Jets tied up the game on the powerplay. Wheeler made his usual cross-ice pass to Scheifele who one-timed it home from the top of the faceoff circle. Kyle Connor also had an assist on Scheifele’s team leading 12th marker of the season and it was all square after one period of play.
The Jets took their first lead midway through the middle stanza. Scheifele made a beautiful pass to set up a wide open Trouba and he fired it past the diving Stalock for just his second goal of the season. Andrew Copp had the other assist and Winnipeg had a 3-2 lead.
The Jets scored a fourth straight goal before the end of the period. Armia spotted Perreault in the slot and he fired it past Stalock for his sixth goal of the season. Hendricks had another assist and four consecutive goals had the Jets ahead 4-2.
The Jets had a Tyler Myers’ goal disallowed early in the final frame because the referee was in the act of blowing the whistle for a Wild penalty.
Just 29 seconds later Wheeler drove to the net but had the puck knocked away, and Connor was right there to send in the backhand for his seventh goal of the year. Scheifele also earned an assist and five unanswered goals had the Jets ahead 5-2.
There was still more to come from the Jets only moments later. Ben Chiarot’s point blast was tipped in by Little. Nikolaj Ehlers had the secondary assist on Little’s fourth of the season and it was all Jets ahead by four.
Everything was going the Jets’ way in the third period as Wheeler’s centring pass deflected off the skate of Jonas Brodin and in behind Stalock. Connor and Dmitry Kulikov had the helpers on Wheeler’s sixth goal of the campaign to close out the scoring.
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Jets captain Blake Wheeler appeared in his 500th career game with the Jets/Thrashers franchise.
The victory gave the Jets their 15th win in their 24th game of the season. It’s the fastest a Jets/Thrashers team has earned win number 15 in franchise history beating the 26 games it took for the 2006-2007 and 2009-2010 Thrashers’ teams.
Eric Comrie dressed as Hellebuyck’s backup after Steve Mason was placed on injured reserve with a concussion earlier on Monday.
Marko Dano, Tucker Poolman and Shawn Matthias were scratched for the Jets.
The Jets will hit the road for one game on Wednesday in Colorado. They will then return home for a brief two game homestand that starts on Friday as the Vegas Golden Knights make their first ever visit to Winnipeg.