Three things - Two goals from Niederreiter leads Jets past Wild

WINNIPEG - In front of their first sellout crowd of the season, the Winnipeg Jets put on another strong defensive effort beating the Minnesota Wild 4-2. The Jets are now ten points up on the Wild in the standings. Nino Niederreiter scored twice, Alex Iaffalo and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby added singles for Winnipeg who got 34 saves from Connor Hellebuyck. The Jets are 21-9-4 on the season and will face the Wild again tomorrow afternoon in St. Paul.

SOLID FIRST PERIOD

The Jets were ready to go in the opening 20 minutes as they were solid defensively, suffocating Minnesota. Winnipeg got a friendly holiday bounce when Alex Iafallo’s slap shot went off of Jared Spurgeon’s skate then Filip Gustafsson’s pad and in at 3:59 to open the scoring.  The Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton line created four high danger scoring chances in the period with Niederreiter finding the back of the net, off a Lowry rebound.

PENALTY ISSUES IN THE SECOND

After the Jets jumped out to 3-0 lead on Niederreiter’s second goal of the afternoon, they ran into some penalty problems (some of the iffy variety). Minnesota had four power play’s in the middle frame and 11 of their 14 second period shots came during the man advantage. Ryan Hartman got the Wild on the board when he one-timed a Marcus Johansson past Connor Hellebuyck to make it 3-1 heading into the third period.

TIMELY GOAL, TIMELY SAVES

The Wild made it a one goal game 20 seconds into the third thanks to a Matt Boldy tally. Just under two and a half minutes later, the Jets fourth line went to work started by some nice work by Dominic Toninato behind the net. The Jets centreman found Axel Jonsson-Fjallby in front and he fired the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury who took over for Gustafsson for the insurance marker.

“Yeah, I mean it's always nice to contribute so I mean the timing of that made it extra special. It was good, it was a big goal,” said Toninato.

“We just got in on the forecheck. Bear (Barron) came down the wall, sealed it off, hit me behind the net, I found Axe and made a nice play putting it in.” 

After that goal, it was Hellebuyck’s turn to shine as he closed the door time and time again when the Wild made their final push.