The surging Winnipeg Jets bring three straight wins into a matchup with the third-place Minnesota Wild, who’ve lost five of their last seven games.
The Winnipeg Jets are back out on the road after rattling off three straight wins to cap off their recent homestand and now travel to Minnesota to take on one of their biggest rivals in the Wild.
This matchup is one of the most important for the Jets as they're looking to grab a crucial two points in a divisional matchup while taking two points away from a team ahead of them in the standings.
Minnesota has joined up with the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars to form the three great powerhouses of the West that all hail from the Central division. Making the playoffs will be especially challenging for the Jets because of this but they do trail the final wild card spot by eight points and with a winning streak could be back into the race in short time.
Lineup Storylines
The Jets offense has finally started to show up with 20 goals over their last five games. Winnipeg's scoring is finally coming from secondary sources with many forwards finally landing on the scoresheet more often than not. Over the last five games, the Jets have five players averaging a point-per-game as well as 13 different players have scored a goal.
It's been a solid all-around effort that has seen some of the coldest players on the team come to life like veteran center Jonathan Toews, who has started to find his game once again with goals in three straight games and four points over his last five games.
Also figuring things out is Cole Perfetti, who also has points in three straight games, totaling no goals but five assists. Not to mention, depth options like Cole Koepke, Tanner Pearson, Alex Iafallo and Adam Lowry as well as defenseman Dylan Samberg have all chipped in three points each over the five-game offensive surge.
They hope they can continue this rampant hot streak from the offense when clashing with a Minnesota team that has been allowing goals in bunches with 19 goals against over their last five games.
The Wild have started to slip after catching lightning in a bottle to start the season with a 4-3-4 record over their last 11 games. Despite this, they still hold a healthy lead for the third spot in the Central division with a 26-12-9 record this season. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two clubs with each game being very tight. Minnesota has won two straight while Winnipeg won their first matchup of the season. Two of their three matchups were decided in overtime while the one decisive win came when the Wild were able to shut out the Jets in a 3-0 road win.
Players to look out for on the Wild need no introduction as Minnesota's big-ticket superstar in Kirill Kaprizov has thoroughly enjoyed his last few meetings with the Jets, scoring in three straight games and totaling nine goals and 15 points for 24 points over 17 career games against Winnipeg. The Wild's second unit has also caused the Jets trouble this season with Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson catching fire in this matchup with four of Minnesota's ten goals versus Winnipeg this season.
Goalie Matchup
Winnipeg: Connor Hellebuyck (Season: 11-12-4 record, 2.75 GAA, .899 SV% | VS MIN: 16-10-3 record, 2.55 GAA, .918 SV% in 32 games)
Minnesota: Filip Gustavsson (Season: 14-9-5 record, 2.53 GAA, .910 SV% | VS WPG: 4-2-2 record, 2.22 GAA, .925 SV% in eight games)
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