The Minnesota Wild turned a three-goal deficit into a one-goal game, but they ultimately fell short in their 4-2 road loss to the Winnipeg Jets inside Canada Life Centre on Saturday afternoon, which ended their four-game win streak.
Jared Spurgeon made his return to the lineup after missing seven games, Ryan Hartman scored in a fourth straight game, Matt Boldy found the back of the net for a third time in four games and Marcus Johansson recorded his 10th point in 10 games, but the Wild couldn't overcome their slow and sloppy start that resulted in a 3-0 deficit.
The Wild found themselves down 1-0 early in the first due to bad puck luck, though. Alex Iafallo opened the scoring for Winnipeg at 3:59 when his one-timer from the top of the left circle deflected off Spurgeon and Filip Gustavsson's skate en route to the back of the net.
Former Wild forward Nino Niederreiter doubled the Jets' lead with 5:22 left in the first period after Jon Merrill turned the puck over along the wall. Adam Lowry came away with the puck from the board battle and his wraparound was saved by Gustavsson, but Niederreiter scored on the rebound.
Niederreiter scored his second of the afternoon in the second when he was left all alone in front of the net. The 31-year-old who spent five and half seasons in Minnesota from 2013-19 made the Wild pay for it when he capitalized on his own rebound to give the Jets a 3-0 lead with 13:15 left in the middle frame, the result of the Wild's lack of urgency.
The Wild entered the game 1-3 under John Hynes when allowing the game's first goal. That moved to 1-4 after Saturday's loss, but the Wild didn't go down without trying. Hartman got the Wild on the board midway through the second and 3:20 after Niederreiter gave the Jets a two-goal lead when he capitalized on Marcus Johansson's cross-crease pass on the power play.
Hartman and Johansson continue to produce and step up for the Wild at a time when they've needed it most with some of their top players injured, especially Mats Zuccarello up front. While Spurgeon is back, Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin remain out of the lineup; The Jets were also missing one of their top forwards in Kyle Connor, who is on injured reserve.
Matt Boldy cut the Wild's deficit to 3-2 just 20 seconds into the third when he beat Connor Hellebuyck — who made 34 saves — blocker side after a no-look backhand pass from Kirill Kaprizov below the goal line.
The Wild’s one-goal deficit was short lived, though, as it only took the Jets 2:26 to answer after another ill-advised, costly turnover by the Wild in their own zone. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby restored Winnipeg's two-goal lead with 17:14 remaining, and while the Wild had their chances, they didn’t have an answer.
Kaprizov left the game in the third period due to injury following two cross checks from Brenden Dillion. Jake Middleton later challenged Dillion to a fight, and the two dropped the gloves.
Gustavsson, who made 19 saves on 22 shots in the first two periods, didn't play in the third period due to a lower-body injury. Marc-Andre Fleury made nine saves on 10 shots in the third, which marked his 999th career appearance.
The 39-year-old is expected to become the fourth goalie in NHL history to play 1,000 games tomorrow.
The Wild — who went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and 1-for-5 on the power play — were outplayed at five-on-five Saturday, plain and simple.
Not only were they outscored 4-1, but the Jets had the edge in quantity and quality on Saturday with 57.5 percent of the Corsi share (46-34) and 62.27 percent of the expected goal share (2.53-1.53), according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Wild and Jets rematch in St. Paul tomorrow afternoon.