Wild go through a Winnipeg wringer and fall to Jets, 5-0

Sarah McLellan, Star Tribune on Dec 21, 2024

Published in Hockey

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The Wild won’t be able to snap their skid against the Jets any time soon, but they have a different funk festering.

They’re on a season-long four-game losing streak after the Wild were blitzed, 5-0, by first-place Winnipeg on Saturday at Canada Life Centre to get swept by their Central Division rival in back-to-back seasons.

Overall, the Jets have won eight in a row and nine of the past 11 matchups.

Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck picked up his NHL-best 21st victory and league-leading fourth shutout with 19 saves and became the first to shut out the Wild this season. Winnipeg’s power play needed only a combined 20 seconds to establish a lead and later pad it with a pair of goals against Wild rookie netminder Jesper Wallstedt.

This was Wallstedt’s second start since joining the Wild a week ago with No. 1 Filip Gustavsson sidelined by a lower-body injury.

Wallstedt, in his fifth NHL game, made 19 stops.

Unlike the Wild, who were denied 2-1 by Utah Hockey Club the previous night at the end of a grim, one-win homestand, the Jets were rested and ready.

Just six seconds into their first power play, they converted after winning the faceoff and working the puck to Nikolaj Ehlers, who swooped in from the side of the net to jam a shot past Wallstedt at 6 minutes, 51 seconds of the first period.

That deficit doubled for the Wild with 2:06 left in the period after a marathon shift by Kirill Kaprizov and Marco Rossi culminated in a 2-on-1 for Winnipeg that Wallstedt stopped initially before Morgan Barron buried the rebound as it sat in the crease; seconds earlier, Rossi failed to connect on a Kaprizov pass as Rossi crashed the net.

Then during the second, the Jets punished Wallstedt for whacking the puck over the boards when former Minnesota Duluth defenseman Neal Pionk walked into a one-timer only 14 seconds into the delay-of-game penalty; Winnipeg and its NHL-leading power play finished 2 for 5, while the Wild blanked on four tries after going 0 for 5 Friday night against Utah. They have just two power-play goals over their past seven games.

The Jets didn’t slow down in the third.

Cole Perfetti pounced on a Jonas Brodin turnover in Wild territory at 2:07 and then Vladislav Namestnikov tipped in a Pionk shot at 7:36 to hand the Wild their second five-goal loss of the week after the Panthers ran away, 6-1, on Wednesday.

During their four-game slump, the Wild have been outscored 24-4 while playing mostly without Joel Eriksson Ek, Jake Middleton, Yakov Trenin, Jakub Lauko and Gustavsson; Kaprizov is responsible for two Wild goals, while Rossi and Mats Zuccarello have one apiece. That line accounted for more than a third of the shots against Hellebuyck, who continues to perform like Teflon against the Wild.

He was also in net for Winnipeg’s earlier wins, 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 13 and 4-1 on Nov. 25, and finished the season series fending off 88 of 90 shots.

This victory widened the Jets’ cushion over the Wild in the division and overall standings to five points.

While Winnipeg has cruised against the Central, going 9-3, the Wild are 5-3-2. They have one more chance to wrap this rut before a three-day holiday hiatus when they take on the Blackhawks on Monday night at Xcel Energy Center.