Jets forced to fly today to Minneapolis for Game 3

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This article was published 14/04/2018 (2707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Jets are to fly out of Winnipeg today after a blizzard kept them from landing in Minneapolis Saturday.

They’ve handled the Minnesota Wild in the first two games off their playoff series, but the Winnipeg Jets have proven to be no match for Mother Nature.

A record-setting spring snowstorm meant the Jets were unable to land in Minneapolis Saturday afternoon and forced the charter flight to be diverted to Duluth, 250 kilometres northeast.

After sitting on the tarmac for a couple of hours waiting to see if an opportunity to get into the Twin Cities might open up, a decision was made to turn the plane around and head back to Winnipeg by late afternoon.

All planes were grounded at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport for much of Saturday as the area was under a blizzard warning, with some estimates of more than 30 centimetres of snow.

Flying in to the competitor’s city on game day is a major change to normal game-day routine. The puck is set to drop for Game 3 at 6 p.m. in St Paul, with the Jets up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.

Winnipeg held a brief practice and media availability Saturday morning at the Bell MTS Iceplex, moving up the time because of the storm system. They took off from Winnipeg just after noon, which was a couple hours earlier than originally planned with the hope of beating the worst of the weather.

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It obviously didn’t work.

Several commercial flights out of Winnipeg to Minneapolis were cancelled Saturday, throwing a major hitch in plans for fans and several local media members following the team south.

Minnesota chartered back home immediately following Friday night’s game and held a practice at the Xcel Energy Centre Saturday afternoon.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.