JETS GO COLD AS MINNY GOES WILD
Home-ice advantage has rarely been such a factor as in this series, Ken Wiebe writes.
ST. PAUL, MINN. The Winnipeg Jets knew a big push was coming. What they probably didn’t expect was for things to spiral out of control the way that they did.
Nobody thought it would come easy, but the Jets were soundly outplayed and allowed the Minnesota Wild to claw their way back into this series after falling 6-2 on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center.
The Jets hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven opening-round matchup between Central Division rivals, with Game 4 set for Tuesday night.
“We only lost six in regulation this year at home, so there must be, whether it’s the home cooking, whether it’s the surface of the ice, whether it’s the fans,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I think all over sports the home team plays better at home for the most part.”
The first period was a penalty fest, with both teams combining to take four stick fouls and two roughing minors.
Most of the penalties called would fall into the avoidable category, and the Jets and Wild took turns making each other pay for those infractions.
With Wild centre Matt Cullen sitting in the penalty box serving an offensive-zone slashing minor, Jets captain Blake Wheeler slipped a bouncing shot past Devan Dubnyk.
Wheeler caught Dubnyk cheating off his post ever so slightly and benefited when his wrister changed direction off the stick of Wild defenceman Jonas Brodin.
The Wild answered with a power-play goal of their own at 9:47. With Adam Lowry off for roughing Jason Zucker after the whistle, Mikael Granlund pounced on a juicy rebound and evened the score.
Then with Ben Chiarot serving his second cross-checking minor of the first period, Mikko Koivu found Zach Parise in the slot for a perfect redirection that gave the Wild its first lead since early in the third period of the series opener.
Koivu has been outstanding so far in the series, chipping in four assists — including two in Game 3 — while Parise has a goal in each of the three contests.
Minnesota defenceman Matt Dumba provided the first evenstrength goal of the game early in the second period when his seeing-eye shot through traffic eluded Connor Hellebuyck.
But the Jets made it a one-goal game when Tyler Myers beat Dubnyk to the blocker side with a long slapper.
The Jets had several more power-play opportunities during the second period, but the puck movement with the man advantage wasn’t crisp enough and they weren’t able to generate many high-quality chances.
That inability to tack on a power play marker was costly as the Wild scored three more goals before the end of the second period to build a big lead.
In doing so, the Wild chased Hellebuyck, who gave up six goals on 22 shots on goal before Steve Mason took over for the third period. Mason made seven saves in relief and looked sharp after being limited to 13 games during the regular season because of a pair of concussions and a knee injury.
Veteran centre Eric Staal got his first goal and point of the series, and Jordan Greenway and Marcus Foligno also scored for the Wild.
The Jets lost Myers to what looked to be an injury to his right leg after an awkward collision with Foligno with 4:19 left in the second period. Foligno blocked a shot and as he fell to the ice, he made contact with the back of Myers’s right knee.
Myers went to the room under his own power but didn’t return, leaving the Jets to finish with five blue-liners.
If Myers can’t play in Game 4, it will be interesting to see if the Jets insert Tucker Poolman or call on Toby Enstrom, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury of his own.
The Wild had the fewest regulation losses in the NHL on home ice this season and you could see the comfort level throughout the contest.
“They have a lot of confidence in this building. It’s similar to what we have done in our building,” Wheeler said.
“You go in there, it just works — you expect it to work. I think teams come in here and it’s a tough environment.”
There was definitely a physical edge to the opening period of Game 3, as Foligno tried to set the tone with a couple of hard checks.
But as has been the case throughout the series, Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien had a few heavy checks of his own.
“I think more has been made of the physicality. I don’t find this series all that physical,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “There’s been a handful of very big hits, and then it’s been a pretty clean skater’s game, even relative to the other games we’ve watched on TV.”