Jets blow a turbine in Minny Allow four straight goals, waste 2-0 lead on Wild By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:58 PM CST Friday, Nov. 23, 2018 Last Modified: 9:45 PM CST Friday, Nov. 23, 2018 Updates

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ST. PAUL — This one’s going to leave a mark. Because a Winnipeg Jets team that appeared to be fully in control Friday let two valuable points go down the drain with a third-period meltdown against the Minnesota Wild.

Winnipeg built a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes, only to surrender four straight goals including the winner by Eric Staal with 2:31 left to play as the Black Friday matinee turned bleak for the visitors.

“I think we kind of let the game get away from us,” forward Adam Lowry said in a sombre Jets locker room at Xcel Energy Center.

Goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who looked steady in stopping all 23 pucks he faced through two periods, was beaten three times on 15 shots in the final frame.

The first was a Nino Niederreiter wrister just 3:06 into the period, the second from Eric Fehr batting a puck out of the air 11:47 into the period. Both of those were courtesy of Minnesota’s fourth line.

“We were on our heels a bit. We didn’t complete a lot of plays,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “Their fourth line scored two big goals for them, one off a controlled breakout and one on a scrum to the net.”

The winner came after Hellebuyck bobbled a seemingly routine point shot, which Staal pounced on. Zach Parise sealed it with an empty-netter just over a minute later.

“I don’t know how it got away from me and when it did, I had someone right in my face, right in my crease and I can’t get down to it. That just sounds like excuses. I gotta have it,” Hellebuyck said of Staal’s decisive goal. “I thought I had it, all of a sudden it popped out.”

Winnipeg falls to 12-7-2, while Minnesota improves to 14-7-2.

The Jets began this four-game road trip with a 6-3 victory Monday in Vancouver, then no-showed a horrendous opening period against the Calgary Flames Wednesday night in falling behind 5-1 and losing 6-3. Now comes another incomplete effort, with two strong periods followed by yet another forgettable one.

It’s not the first time it’s happened this season. Winnipeg has taken a lead into the second intermission 10 times this year, yet has only managed to win six of those games. Twice they’ve fallen in regulation, including a similar two-goal collapse in Toronto, and two other times they fell in overtime or a shootout. That’s a lot of points being left on the table, which might prove to be important down the road.

Similarly, the Jets have only managed to win once in the six games they’ve trailed through 40 minutes.

“Up until (Friday), we’re winning a lot more than we’re losing recently, so the sky isn’t falling. But on the road, there are going to be momentum changes. They’re going to score a goal, more than likely, and we’ve just got to face that adversity and do a little bit better job with that,” said captain Blake Wheeler.

Special teams played a big role in the outcome.

With the score tied 2-2, Minnesota defenceman Ryan Suter was called for roughing with just 4:33 left in the third frame. That gave Winnipeg’s potent power play, which began the day ranked second-overall in the NHL, a chance to get back on track after they’d seemingly lost momentum by giving up two straight goals.

Not only did Minnesota kill it, Staal struck just 12 seconds later.

“They get a big kill there and like I said, that’s an area where we want to get the job done and we didn’t. Their guys got the job done and shortly thereafter, they knocked one in and probably rode that momentum,” said Wheeler.

Patrik Laine opened the scoring for the Jets late in the first period, converting for a sixth time in the past three games. He buried a rebound created by a Tyler Myers point shot for his team-leading 14th of the season.

Nikolaj Ehlers increased the lead to 2-0 with just over a minute left in the second, cashing in on the power play for his fifth of the year.

Then the wheels came off in the final frame.

“I thought for the most part, the first two periods we played a pretty solid road game. Then we kind of got off it, we slowed down a little bit. I don’t know if that’s all the PKs in the second period or what the cause was, but we weren’t ourselves in the third,” said Lowry.

Winnipeg finished the game a perfect six-for-six on the penalty kill, five of which came in the first two periods when they built their two-goal lead. The Jets ended up one-for-four on the power play. All of those penalties, from both teams, meant there wasn’t a lot of flow or five-on-five action.

Wheeler said they know what needs to be done better. It’s just a matter of executing.

“Simplifying, playing direct. Just kind of chopping the game off offensively,” he said. “We spent a great deal of the game on the penalty kill, so we weren’t necessarily feeling it offensively regardless. In those situations, you’ve just got to learn to take some of the wind out of the building. A TV timeout comes, anything you can do to slow that momentum and kind of get the game back in check.”

Winnipeg has a chance to ease the sting a bit when they wrap up the road trip tonight in St. Louis taking on the Blues at 6 p.m.

“Some people dwell on it longer than others, but by puck drop, we’ll be focused on St. Louis,” said Wheeler.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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