There was no black bunting hanging in the Wild dressing room, no hangdog expressions on weary faces and no hangups about hanging 44 shots on the NHL’s best team despite their latest loss to a longtime nemesis.
Nothing to mourn when you’re robbed by one of the best bandits in the crease.
The Winnipeg Jets are a brute force that steamrolled everyone and everything in their path during an historic start to the season. They’ve also had their way with Minnesota for several years, a one-sided rivalry that figured to flatten out Monday night when the league’s top two teams clashed at Xcel Energy Center.
Winnipeg’s 4-1 victory was the latest over their Central Division brethren, though it hardly resembled the three-goal cakewalk on the scoresheet. The Wild had a helluva time beating Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who soul-crushed them with a series of money saves that left them gnashing their teeth.
“Yeah, disappointing, but we threw a lot at him,” said defenseman Jake Middleton, the Wild’s lone goal scorer. “That was probably the best first period we played all year, as far as not giving up shot opportunities and funneling pucks to the net. Tip your cap to Connor.”
That’s seven straight Jets victories in the series, including twice this season, as Hellebuyck outdueled counterpart Filip Gustavsson once again.
Minnesota’s 2-1 overtime loss Oct. 13 in Winnipeg can be shrugged off because it still tallied a tough road point despite Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek being sidelined with injuries. It was part of Winnipeg’s banner start to the season as the first NHL team to win 15 of its first 16 games.
There was palpable relief among the Wild faithful seeing Kirill Kaprizov in the lineup after he suffered a knee-on-knee injury last week in Edmonton that sidelined him for a game. The Wild pumped 39 shots on Hellebuyck by the halfway mark of the second period but only five more the rest of the game as the Jets tightened their checking screws and cashed in on their opportunities.
The tight checking and chippiness created a playoff-like vibe between two alphas burnishing their bona fides for the spring.
“I thought both teams played hard, both teams played well,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “You knew it was going to be that style of game for sure.”
Minnesota’s unforeseen hot start increased the stakes for what would typically be an early season sparring match. Buzz usually doesn’t build for regular-season matchups unless there are scores to settle or grudges to hold over.
Declaring anything in November a statement game is lazy and a waste of energy. Identities are forged and battle scars earned by crawling over broken glass for six months of injuries, scoring droughts, hot streaks and roster churn.
You don’t make the playoffs until the snow melts but you can play your way out of contention before the leaves are finished falling. Only a year ago this week, the Wild hired Hynes to replace the forsaken Dean Evason, who was fired in the midst of a seven-game losing streak that proved too deep a hole for Minnesota to emerge for the postseason.
Monday’s showdown with the Jets closed the circle on Hynes’ initial calendar year with the club and offered a pleasant reminder of how far he and his charges have journeyed since bottoming out at 5-10-4 last Thanksgiving weekend. Through his first 82 games with the Wild, Hynes was 47-26-9 – a .628 points percentage that would have made them a top-10 team last season.
Hynes’ scheme and philosophy have taken root and the Wild are flourishing. They have proven themselves over the first quarter of the season to be competitively balanced, emotionally mature and totally driven to make up for what was lost in 2023-24.
Impressive considering the financial shackles that have bound general manager Bill Guerin to this mostly static roster since jettisoning Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and their prohibitive contracts.
The run-it-back Wild seemed eager to plant their flag for the NHL to take notice. Their 22 first-period shots were laying the groundwork for a potential blowout but for Hellebuyck, who wasn’t just brilliant but Vezina brilliant.
Middleton pounced on an uncharacteristically juicy rebound to bag his fourth goal of the season. But the Wild’s lead lasted all of 1 minute, 26 seconds before Alex Iafallo tied the game midway through the first.
Middleton had another golden opportunity to regain the lead in the second but whiffed on his drive to the net like many a defenseman who finds himself crashing the blue paint.
Meanwhile, as the transitioning Jets motored up ice, Yakov Trenin decided to rescue Joel Eriksson Ek, who was handling himself just fine in a tussle with Iafallo behind Hellebuyck. Trenin hassled Iafallo all the way to the Winnipeg blue line as the Wild scrambled shorthanded to defend the Jets’ rush, which culminated with Nino Niederreiter’s latest dagger to his former employer.
Niederreiter’s game winner gives him seven goals and 11 points in 15 games against the Wild since he last played in Minnesota in 2019.
Meanwhile, Trenin and his obsessive face-washing left him knocking on Hynes’ doghouse door.
“I think there's some discussion points we can have on that situation,” Hynes said diplomatically.
The Wild face the Jets one more time Dec. 21 in Winnipeg. It might be four more months before the foes face each other again in the playoffs. Plenty of time to fuel those grudges.
“We don’t like Winnipeg,” acknowledged Gustavsson. “You need to win against the best teams. We just need to find a way to win those.”
