Jets command regulation win over Wild

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This article was published 21/12/2019 (2087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Winnipeg Jets did something no NHL team has done in more than two months — defeat Minnesota in regulation time in the Wild’s own barn.

They did it with authority Saturday afternoon.

With a couple of major milestones.

Jets captain Blake Wheeler set the wheels in motion with a shorthanded goal in the first period and later fed Patrik Laine for his second of two tallies to become the franchise’s all-time points leader, sparking his club to a resounding 6-0 triumph over the Wild.

Wheeler has amassed 616 points with Atlanta/Winnipeg since he was traded from the Boston Bruins to the Thrashers in early 2011, vaulting over Ilya Kovalchuk, who remains unemployed after being cut loose by the Los Angeles Kings last week.

“It’s not something I’ve set out to do or thought about. I really feel like a product of some good teams and I’ve played on some really good lines, played a lot of minutes. So, I just feel fortunate for the opportunities I’ve had here and the guys I get to play with every single night,” Wheeler said. “It’s not going to be long before one of these guys on this team passes me, and that will be a good moment, too.”

One of those guys could be Mark Scheifele, who scored with just six seconds left in the first period as the Jets weathered an early push by the hard-working Wild and went into the intermission leading 2-0.

The Central Division and cross-border rival Wild usually make life miserable for visitors. Head coach Bruce Boudreau’s squad had earned points in 12 straight games (9-0-3) at the Xcel Energy Center, its only stumble in regulation time coming Oct. 12 in a 7-4 loss in their home opener to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But the Jets had all its big guns blazing, with Scheifele’s team-leading 17th goal, Wheeler’s 10th, Laine’s 12th and 13th and Nikolaj Ehlers’ 15th.

Appropriately for Wheeler, one of the game’s top play-makers, his historic point came on a pin-point pass to Laine, locked and loaded at the faceoff dot.

“You guys have seen it before, not too many times this year but in the past,” Laine said wryly. “He made a great play, as he always does. It’s always nice to see a guy like that get rewarded. Being the all-time points leader is pretty special.”

Added head coach Paul Maurice: “That would be one you won’t mind showing as a highlight. It’s a good one. It’s not off anybody’s kneecap.”

Winnipeg has a perfect 6-0 record in afternoon contests, and Connor Hellebuyck has protected the net in each. He turned aside 31 shots in his most recent midday masterpiece, posting his third shutout of the season.

“It felt really good, actually. I came to the rink with a good battle mentality and the guys in front of me played fantastic. Any time they put up six helps. I just thought our overall game, we never took a shift off,” Hellebuyck said.

“I don’t have a booklet in my mind of every single game we’ve played so far. But you’ve got to think this is pretty close (to a complete game). We never took a shift off and we stuck to our game all (day).”

Winnipeg improved to 21-13-2, stopping a two-game losing skid, while Minnesota fell to 17-15-5.

Jansen Harkins, tied for third in American Hockey League scoring, suited up for his NHL debut and registered his first-ever point on a nifty set-up of Logan Shaw’s third-period tally. Harkins was called up from the Manitoba Moose earlier this week. Blue-liner Josh Morrissey added three assists for the visitors.

Hellebuyck had a hectic first period and had to come up with 14 saves, his finest a blocker save off Zach Parise with the clubs still scoreless. Later in the period, Wheeler pushed the puck to Adam Lowry in the neutral zone and then won a foot race with Mats Zuccarello to open space, accepted a feed from Lowry and beat Minnesota goalie Alex Stalock to the far side.

Maurice said both early developments were crucial.  

“Not just the kill, but to get a shorthanded goal. We’ve been struggling in that department. And a big save by Connor Hellebuyck, back-door, on Parise,” he said. “They’ve been such a dominant home team that you knew they were going to push early. On the plays that we couldn’t make or had a mistake, there was a real high battle level. A lot of our (defencemen), Luca Sbisa, if we couldn’t get it out, then stay in the fight, get a stick on the puck, survive it. And then the ones that we couldn’t, Connor was there.”

Credit Jets blue-liner Anthony Bitetto for, perhaps, the afternoon’s finest defensive play when he blew a read but raced back to bat away the puck to ruin a breakaway by Kevin Fiala, his former Nashville Predators teammate.

Winnipeg’s penalty killing unit erased three Wild chances with the man advantage, while the visitors’ power play went one for four.

The Jets had suffered consecutive losses — 6-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes and 4-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks — before making the trip to the Twin Cities. They have just one assignment left — a matchup with the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Monday night — before taking three days off for the holiday season.

“You have enthusiasm going into the last one before Christmas. It was very important. We would have handled it, had it not gone well, and tried to prepare for the next game. But you want to stop the bleeding as quick as you can,” Maurice said on halting the slide. “Because we’ve been good for a while, and you want December to be a good month. And we know we’re coming out of Christmas with some really heavy games. So it was a big one.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell