The Winnipeg Jets may have entered their meeting in Minnesota Thursday night on a three-game win streak, but they were still riding a nine-game road losing streak.
They put a loud and emphatic end to that, crushing the Wild 6-2 for their first win outside of Winnipeg since Nov. 29 in Nashville.
It took the Jets over 14 minutes to register their first shot on goal of the game, but they scored three times in the next six minutes and never looked back en route to a fourth straight victory.
Mark Scheifele matched a career-high with four points and Jonathan Toews scored for the fourth straight game as his first period 5-on-3 power play goal flipped the momentum.
“They have a history, especially in this building, of being real strong in the first period,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We needed Helly (Connor Hellebuyck). He had to make a couple stops there and kinda weathered the storm. Obviously, scoring that goal on the power play kinda settled us down and obviously moved forward from there.”
Scheifele, Tanner Pearson, Josh Morrissey, Logan Stanley and Gabriel Vilardi also scored goals for Winnipeg.
The six-goal performance matches a season-high and after averaging just 2.3 goals per game during their 11-game losing skid, the Jets have averaged five goals per night during their current win streak.
“We’re working for our bounces and creating that with hard work,” said Jets defenceman Logan Stanley. “It’s definitely a good feeling coming in here, being up, and having, maybe not a good first period, but a good end to the period.”
After scoring with a two-man advantage, the Jets scored twice in the opening period’s final 10 seconds.
“You get a 5-on-3, you got to take advantage,” said Scheifele. “Especially with the way the start of the game went. So, obviously that was a big goal on a 5-on-3 and then to get two right at the end of the period was kinda a backbreaker.”
Toews has clearly found his stride following a rough start to the campaign after missing the past two seasons. He recorded his 900th career point in the win, giving him five points over his last four games.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“He’s feeling it, which is awesome,” Arniel said. “Hopefully he feels it right through the end of the season. But it took him awhile to kinda find his legs, find his, sorta his place, and his game. Now you see it and getting the rewards from it.”
Toews is just the third Manitoban to reach 900 NHL points behind Bobby Clarke and Andy Bathgate.
Minnesota actually dominated play for much of the first period, outshooting the Jets 10-0 in the first 13 minutes as Winnipeg barely touched the puck but Hellebuyck stood tall to keep the score 0-0.
Things turned when Matt Boldy took a high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone at the 12:43 mark, which was then compounded by a Marcus Foligno tripping penalty that gave the Jets a 5-on-3 for 1:28.
Winnipeg made Minnesota pay as Toews banged home a loose puck off a rebound from their first shot on goal in the game.
The goal gave Winnipeg life as they outshot Minnesota 8-1 over the duration of the period, the latter two shots providing a stunning end to the first.
With time winding down, the Jets dumped the puck into the Wild end with Quinn Hughes getting the puck from his goalie in the corner. Under pressure from Pearson, Hughes sent a weak clearing attempt up the boards that Dylan DeMelo stopped before sending a shot on goal.
Jesper Wallstedt easily saved that shot but Pearson was there to collect the rebound, and though he was denied on his first follow-up attempt, he roofed the second one over a sprawled Wallstedt for his third goal in five games with 10.5 seconds left in the first.
One would have thought that would be it for the scoring, but the Wild sloppily iced the puck off the ensuing faceoff, giving the Jets one last chance in the offensive zone.
Executing a set play, Toews won the faceoff back to Scheifele, who dropped the puck back to the point for a Morrissey one-timer that beat Wallstedt with 2.3 seconds on the clock.
A stunned St. Paul crowd booed its team as the horn sounded to end what turned out to be a disastrous period for the Wild.
Minnesota cut into the Jets’ advantage just under five minutes into the second when Danila Yurov got free in the slot, took a nice pass from the corner from Jake Middleton and rifled it past Hellebuyck.
But the Wild got into more penalty trouble as the period went along, which proved to be rather costly.
Winnipeg did not score while Mats Zuccarello was in the box for tripping, but just three seconds after his penalty expired and before he could get back into the play, the Jets made it 4-1.
Stanley kept the puck in at the Minnesota blue line and tried to send it on net but it was blocked by Foligno; however, Stanley was able to get it back and skated down to the faceoff dot before unleashing a full-windup slapshot that went bar-down on Wallstedt for his eighth goal of the season.
Minnesota was penalized again a few minutes later when Nico Sturm was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, yelling at the refs after Hughes tripped over Hellebuyck on a breakaway chance for which no call was given.
On the ensuing power play, after a scramble in front of Wallstedt, Scheifele got the puck back to the point where Morrissey fired a shot that missed wide. Winnipeg got a great bounce as the puck caromed off the boards and right to the stick of Vilardi for a tap-in goal to make it 5-1.
After the Jets killed off an Alex Iafallo penalty, Kyle Connor hit Iafallo with a pass as he stepped out of the penalty box. Iafallo carried it deep into the Minnesota zone before passing it to Scheifele at the faceoff dot. He ripped a shot off the post and in for his 23rd of the season, making it 6-1 after 40 minutes and giving Scheifele a fourth point in the game.
The second intermission also spelled the end of Wallstedt’s night as Filip Gustavsson took over for the third period.
Not much happened in the final frame, save for a Marcus Johansson goal with 2:42 remaining to make the final score 6-2.
Hellebuyck was rock solid in goal for Winnipeg, stopping 32 shots while the Jets have now scored 20 goals over this four-game win streak.
They’ll look to make it five in a row when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 6 p.m.
