Minnesota @ Winnipeg preview
Canada Life Centre
Last Meeting ( Dec 31, 2023 ) Winnipeg 3, Minnesota 2
The Minnesota Wild head on the road to face the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday feeling confident. Really, really confident.
Thanks to a franchise-record performance in Monday's 10-7 home win over the league-leading Vancouver Canucks, the Wild are only two points back of the St. Louis Blues for the Western Conference's second wild-card spot. Minnesota is on a 5-0-1 run.
"I don't think I've ever been a part of something like that where they just kept going in one after another I guess," said Wild forward Matt Boldy, who scored once as part of a four-point performance on Monday. "Yeah, it was nice to be able to get the power-play goals but to be able to go out and get a couple five-on-five, too."
The 10 goals are a franchise record, part of a crazy game in which the Wild scored seven times in the third period. They tallied six goals in a 5:45 span.
"I'm sure the fans were really excited to watch it, but I don't know about the coaches," Minnesota forward Joel Eriksson Ek said.
Individually, Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov tied a franchise record with six points (both posted a hat trick and added three assists). They also are the first teammates to net six points apiece in the same game since Wayne Gretzky and Tomas Sandstrom did so with the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 9, 1993.
"When you score a lot of goals like we did in (the) third period, I think it's just feeling better (about) yourself," Kaprizov said.
Eriksson Ek (seven goals, five assists) and Kaprizov (four goals, eight assists) each have 12 points during five-game point streaks.
The Jets return home after surrendering a season-high goal total in a 6-3 road loss to the Calgary Flames on Monday afternoon, which snapped a three-game winning streak.
Losing is bad enough, but the Jets rang up a 3-1 first-period lead thanks to Sean Monahan's natural hat trick, and Winnipeg then surrendered five unanswered goals.
"That's as soft a five-on-five game as we've played all year. That's not us at all, so that didn't even look like the Winnipeg Jets out there," Jets coach Rick Bowness said. "But you know what? You flush it and we're going to get ready for (Tuesday)."
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck saw his run of surrendering three goals or fewer snapped at 31 starts.
"He's been unbelievable all year, and it's just disappointing that we as a team in front of him gave up looks that there was nothing he could do on," Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey said of Hellebuyck.
Monahan was acquired during the All-Star break and was held without a point in his first four games with the Jets, but his trio of goals against the Flames gives him four in the past two contests, with three power-play goals in that span. Winnipeg had gone eight games without a man-advantage marker but now has four in the past two outings.
Monahan's three-goal game in Calgary is the fastest natural hat trick in franchise history, coming in a span of 5:17.
"Just more comfortable making reads, I think we're getting pucks to the net," Monahan said. "When you get a couple on the power play and get some confidence, I think that goes a long way."
--Field Level Media