No love lost between Jets, Wild

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This article was published 23/11/2018 (2479 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL — It didn’t take long for Friendly Manitoba and Minnesota Nice to renew hostilities.

Facing off for the first time since their first-round playoff series in the spring — not including a pair of pre-season meetings when many regulars sat out — the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild quickly reminded the hockey world they’re not huge fans of each other.

There was a parade to the penalty box, a few after-the-whistle skirmishes, a couple of questionable hits and one memorable melee inside the Jets’ bench.

Many people have said a true sports rivalry can only be cemented by playing in the post-season, and there was ample evidence on display Friday to suggest that will be the case as these teams are set to meet four more times in the regular season.

Oh, and if the playoffs started today, guess who would be matched up once again? The Jets took last year’s battle in five games, which might have given the Wild a little extra motivation as they rallied for a 4-2 victory Friday.

Jets centre Adam Lowry found himself the centre of attention after he crushed Joel Eriksson Ek with an elbow with just over five minutes left to play in what was a 2-2 game.

He was going to be whistled for the only infraction, but Minnesota’s Nick Seeler stepped in his way and Lowry shoved him into the bench. The Wild’s Marcus Foligno also entered the bench trying to get Seeler out of harm’s way as fists began flying.

“I think he thinks I hit Eriksson high. It was unintentional. Credit to Seeler, being a good teammate and jumps in. Whoever was on our bench didn’t shut the gate, so he goes in there and I think there’s a few bodies in there,” Lowry said of the chaos.

Somehow, the Wild ended up offsetting Lowry’s original penalty, which had Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau spitting nails on the bench.

He was equally livid a few minutes later when Wild defenceman Ryan Suter and Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers had an intense net-front battle, which Suter apparently took too far with a violent takedown that resulted in Suter taking a roughing penalty.

Of course, that ended being a major turning point as the Wild killed it off and scored the winning goal 12 seconds later.

Other plays that had players and coaches up in arms included a Dustin Byfuglien late hit on Wild forward Mikael Granlund (Byfuglien was called for interference), and a J.T. Brown hit on Andrew Copp that knocked the Jets forward out of the game in the third period. Copp’s head may have struck the divider beside the Jets’ bench.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice didn’t have a post-game update other than to say Copp would be going through concussion protocol.

Lowry tried to downplay any bad blood following the game.

“We were both trying to win the game, they came out desperate there, they were down by two and they were able to claw their way back into the game. We try to play a certain style of hockey, whether that gives a sense of a rivalry or not, I don’t think there was that much hatred out in the game,” he said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg