The Jets win the first game of the home and home with the Wild courtesy of their 4-2 victory this afternoon to improve to 21-9-4 on the season and 9-1-2 in December. Make it 24 games in a row giving up 3 or fewer goals for the Jets as they improve to 9-3-1 against the Central Division.
For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats click here to see the results from the game via Natural Stat Trick.
Notable:
Today was game number 195 for Brenden Dillon in a Jets jersey which moves him into a tie for 29th on the all-time list. Coincidentally he moves ahead of Zach Bogosian (now 30th overall) who is playing this afternoon in Winnipeg for the Wild. He tied Brandon Tanev & PLD.
The Jets opened the scoring which was important given the Wild were 10-0 under new coach John Hynes when scoring the first goal of the game.
A hard-working shift by the third line gave the Jets their second goal of the game as Mason Appleton, who didn’t get credited with an assist, led a good forecheck before Adam Lowry did some heavy lifting behind the net leading to his wraparound which was finished by Nino Niederreiter who got his 11th of the season to make it 2-0.
Coming into this game the Wild were one of five teams in the NHL who hadn’t comeback from a 2-0 deficit this season.
After a penalty kill (which became a too frequent theme in the middle frame) the Jets added to their lead when Nino Niederreiter got his second of the game and 12th of the year after Josh Morrissey made a smart slap pass to number 62 who was parked in front of the Wild net.
Too many penalties (to both teams) in the 2nd and the Wild were able to convert to cut the Jets lead to 3-1.
The final frame began with a goalie change for Minnesota as Marc-Andre Fleury got the net for the visitors which was his 999th game in the NHL. He is expected to start tomorrow in the re-match which will make it game 1000.
After the Wild drew within one just 20 seconds into the 3rd the home team regained their two goal edge courtesy of Axel Jonsson-Fjallby who made it a 4-2 game for Winnipeg. That’s his second of the season and second in the last four games.
The Jets have given up just 86 goals against this season. Every other team in the Central (except Arizona who are at 99) have given up 106 or more.
Multipoint Game:
Nino Niederreiter 2G
Highlights:
Coach post-game media:
Illegal Curve Post-Game Show:
Up next:
The Jets head to Minnesota where they will have a re-match tomorrow afternoon against the Wild. Start your day with the Morning Papers which will go live at 7 am tomorrow on illegalcurve.com and then join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show.
Podcast:
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Recap of the game.
Keeping you up-to-date with all the latest pro hockey news in Manitoba.
TSN analyst Craig Button shares his thoughts.