An out-hustled, out-muscled Jets lose 5-3 to Wild

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This article was published 10/11/2015 (3618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL — So, if this week’s four-game Winnipeg Jets road-trip through the Central Division really is the “measuring stick” it’s been touted to be, the first calculation that was taken here at Xcel Energy Center Tuesday night suggests the Jets are using centimetres in an elite division that is being measured in inches.

The Jets were out-hustled, out-muscled and, for a long stretch in the second period, simply out-classed by a Minnesota Wild team that made a mockery of all that team defence the Jets talk about all the time, erupting for four second period goals en route to a 5-3 Minnesota victory.

And as bad as that sounds, the final score actually flattered the Jets on a night the Wild led 5-1 at one point, rang three goal posts and preyed all night long on an undisciplined Jets team that gave up two breakaway goals in under a two minute span in the second period, the latter one coming while the Wild were shorthanded.

Things unravelled so badly for the Jets that at one point late in the second period they had a three-man disadvantage of sorts, with two men already in the penalty box and a delayed penalty on a third.

Wild winger Thomas Vanek had a big night, with a pair of goals, while the Wild also got single markers from Chris Porter, Erik Haula (shorthanded) and Nino Niederreiter, who opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game.

Bryan Little had the first and last goals for the Jets. The first was a beauty — a one-handed deflection of a Dustin Byfuglien point-shot that came midway through the first period, while the second one came on a breakaway with under eight minutes to play in the third period to narrow the Wild lead to 5-3. 

Blake Wheeler added the other Jets goal, notching his seventh of the season to narrow the Wild lead to 5-2 midway through the third period.

Playing from behind?

That Niederreiter goal at 3:44 of the first period marked the 12th time in 16 games this season that the Jets have given up the first goal of the game. With last night’s loss, the Jets are now 5-5-2 in games in which their opponent scores first, but 3-1-0 when they score first.

About that hot start

After flying out of the gate with a 7-3-1 run in October, the Jets are now just 1-3-1 in November and have collected just three of a possible 10 points in their last five games.

Paul Postma swings and misses

Vanek’s second goal of the night came on a play in which he undressed Jets defenceman Paul Postma so badly that Postma could have been cited for public indecency.

Vanek slid the puck between his skates and simply waltzed around Postma to go in all alone on the Jets net and beat goalie Ondrej Pavelec at 9:54 of the second period.

It was Vanek’s second goal in a five minute span and it put the Wild up 4-1. Jets head coach Paul Maurice pulled Pavelec at that point and replaced him with Michael Hutchinson, although no one was blaming Pavelec for a Jets defence that on this night looked more like the Bombers secondary.

Next?

Things don’t get any easier for the Jets from here. On the contrary, things are about to get a lot more difficult as the Jets travel from here to Dallas, where they will take on the high-flying Dallas Stars Thursday night.

Dallas is the class right now of the Central Division, which is to say they are the class of the class. The Stars were 12-3-0 this season heading into Tuesday night and had won eight of their last 10 games.

The Jets travel from Dallas to Nashville, where they will face the Predators on Saturday and then wrap up this road trip Monday night in St. Louis against the Blues.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek

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