Winnipeg Jets defeat the Minnesota Wild 6-3 in a rematch from just over a week ago, which was quite the chippy game. Mark Scheifele took charge with three goals and an assist, while Blake Wheeler had 4 assists. Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves of 36 shots, and Perfetti is making a name for himself.
With just under 10 minutes to go in the first period, after an extended stint of pressure on the Jets, Jared Spurgeon takes a shot from the point, that gets redirected in. While Blake Wheeler was doing a fair job of boxing Joel Eriksson Ek out from net-front (which is a great sign for this team), Spurgeon's shot bounced off of the unexpecting Eriksson Ek, to take a 1-0 lead.
The Jets didn't have excellent defensive coverage to start this game, and Connor Hellebuyck made a few almost-costly bobbles with the puck, and it was a bit of a nerve-racking period for Jets fans. The Jets came out of the intermission and had a much better period, but it was noticeable all game that Ville Heinola is a missing piece of the blue-line. I'm not sure who you take out now that everybody is healthy, but Heinola adds a lot to this group.
The magical line of Connor-Dubois-Perfetti had tons of high quality chances in the second period, although it was Mark Scheifele to score the Jets first goal of the game. The play starts with a Stastny chip-in into the Wild end, and Blake Wheeler does a fantastic job of winning the puck battle behind the net, and makes room for himself in front of Cam Talbot. He uses the space and finds Scheifele on the other side of the crease, who scores his 15th goal of the season.
To finish off the period, with 11 seconds remaining, Wheeler sends the puck from the corner up to the blue line for Josh Morrissey, who finds Scheifele at the top of the circle, who takes a great shot for his second goal of the period.
To kick things off in the 3rd period, just over a minute in we see some very familiar plays already. Brenden Dillon takes a shot on net from the point, and Wheeler picks up the rebound and goes cross-crease with a pass for Scheifele. The Stastny-Scheifele-Wheeler line went on to get more points as Stastny would score an empty-netter later in thegame, with both linemates getting assists.
Just over a minute later, Cole Perfetti scores his 2nd career NHL goal, by tipping a Logan Stanley shot in. Perfetti is becoming a fantastic player, who is now up to 7 points in 16 games, after he sent a cross-ice pass to Kyle Connor, who scores his 27th of the season on a great move to beat Talbot.
Overall, the team played a fantastic game. There was a few moments of hesitation, but the defense was able to play tight enough to not let the Wild's star players get opportunities, and Hellebuyck was able to avoid getting shaken up by a few goals and mishandles. The top six forwards looked fantastic, while the bottom six had some woes. The leadership on this team really took charge, and played a fantastic game, with the top line recording 9 points. Mark Scheifele trade thoughts are going to be quieter for a little bit, after recording his 5th consecutive game with a goal, and Blake Wheeler has 9(!!!!) assists in his last 3 games, one of which he went pointless in.
The biggest question will be about what to do with the bottom six. I am not sure what the answer is, but Svechnikov in the press box is not the answer. When Ehlers is healthy, Stastny will be a bottom six piece, and greatly improve it, but I still think a trade could be made to acquire one scoring third line piece. Some players who could be availble for a role like that are Travis Boyd from Arizona, and Alex Barabanov from San Jose. I don't know if these pending UFA's will be available by the deadline, but with expiring contracts, and their teams not in the playoff picture, it may be well worth an offer.
Let me know your thoughts on tonights game, thanks for reading!
Jacob