Zucker scores twice, Wild hold off Jets

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jason Zucker scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.

Jordan Greenway scored and Jared Spurgeon had two assists for Minnesota (22-18-3), which hadn't won at home since Dec. 13 (0-3-1 in previous four). Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves.
"We played a great game start to finish," said Dubnyk, who has won four consecutive starts. "We were pushing hard through the first two periods, and if we went down a man, the penalty kill was incredible. I don't know if I even got but a few shots on the power play, but just a ton of blocks and really smart play positionally.
WATCH: [All Jets vs. Wild highlights]
"And then, when you get a two-goal lead in the third period, you're allowed to defend, and we did a great job defending and doing it hard."
Brandon Tanev and Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg (27-14-2), which had won two straight. Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves.
"We looked a half step slow at times with our offense," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "Even down 2-0, you just felt that you just needed to stay in the game and we needed something to go in the third."
Greenway gave the Wild a 1-0 lead after receiving a pass from Eric Staal from behind the net and beating Hellebuyck under his arm at 5:40 of the first period.
Zucker redirected a pass from Mikko Koivu on the power play to extend the lead to 2-0 at 11:04 of the second period. He made it 3-0 at 17:50 on a breakaway after exiting the penalty box and receiving a lofted stretch pass from Zach Parise.

"I was just sitting in the box just hoping, obviously. It's always tough when you're watching the power play like that," Zucker said. "It was a great alley-oop pass all the way down. So it was nice to be able to score that one, too."
Tanev scored off the crossbar to cut it to 3-1 at 19:19.
Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 13-0 in the third period.
"[The Wild] sat back," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. "They had a two-goal lead. We were able to cut it late, but they were pretty much packing it in tight. Anything we were able to get to the net, Dubnyk saw. We just couldn't get enough in front of them."
With Hellebuyck pulled for an extra attacker, Scheifele scored on a turnaround in the slot to cut it to 3-2 at 17:22.

"It's up to us to keep (the wins) going," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team has won four of its past five. "We had such a bad six weeks, though, that it can never be something you get satisfied with. It seems like there's so many teams involved in a [Stanley Cup Playoff] race, and it's not just two or three. It's every night you're looking at eight teams in the Western Conference involved for those spots. So you can't let up at all. It's going to be like this for the rest of the year I think."

They said it

"When you dig yourself a hole, it makes it really tough. If you have the lead on [Minnesota], it puts a lot of pressure on them. You allow them to take the lead, it just plays right into their game." -- Jets captain Blake Wheeler
"For this team, it seems like when we're winning, it's a different person doing something every night. So it's good to see [Jason Zucker] score. I think in the next little while you'll see other guys start to score some more as well." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Jets defenseman Tyler Myers left at 2:07 of the third period with an undisclosed injury after a hit into the boards. … Scheifele has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past three games. … Parise had an assist and has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past eight games. … Spurgeon has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past five games.

What's next

Jets:Host the Detroit Red Wings on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, TSN3, FS-D, NHL.TV
Wild:Host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-WI, FS-N+, FS-D, NHL.TV)