Jason Zucker scored with 2:10 remaining in the third period to give the Minnesota Wild a 6-5 win against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre on Tuesday.
With a boarding penalty to Wild forward Nino Niederreiter expiring, Zucker got the puck from Erik Haula and his wrist shot beat Michael Hutchinson. Joel Armia and Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets 1:42 apart in the third period to tie it 5-5.
Mikael Granlund, Tyler Graovac, Haula, Ryan White and Marco Scandella scored for the Wild (41-14-6), who led 4-1 and 5-2. Darcy Kuemper was pulled after allowing five goals on 29 shots. Devan Dubnyk made seven saves in 8:43 for his 34th win. The Wild extended their lead on the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division and Western Conference standings to five points. Minnesota forwards Zach Parise and Jason Pominville each missed his second game because of the mumps. Patrik Laine, Adam Lowry and Mathieu Perreault scored for the Jets (28-30-6). Connor Hellebuyck allowed five goals on 21 shots and was pulled at 13:19 of the second period. The Jets are five points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Laine scored 1:02 into the first period to make it 1-0. His 31 goals are tied with Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews for most by an NHL rookie. Granlund tied it 1-1, scoring on a breakaway at 3:02 after Mikko Koivu created a turnover the Wild zone. Graovac gave the Wild a 2-1 lead at 14:19, and Haula made it 3-1 at 18:22, with Granlund picking up an assist for his third point of the period. Scandella pushed the lead to 4-1 at 8:03 in the second period. Lowry scored to make it 4-2 at 9:42 before White made it 5-2 at 13:19. Perreault scored at 17:37 to make it 5-3. Wild defenseman Ryan Suter did not play after the first period. He was boarded by Jets defenseman Paul Postma at 14:54.
* Haula drew two Jets defenders deep in Winnipeg's zone while Zucker jumped off the bench on a line change and joined the rush. Haula made his pass through both defenders to Zucker, who was alone in front.
* Granlund has nine points (five goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak and has 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in his past 22 games. … Laine has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak. … The Jets have allowed three goals or more in 22 of their past 27 games.
Laine scored 1:02 into the first period to make it 1-0. His 31 goals are tied with Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews for most by an NHL rookie. Granlund tied it 1-1, scoring on a breakaway at 3:02 after Mikko Koivu created a turnover the Wild zone. Graovac gave the Wild a 2-1 lead at 14:19, and Haula made it 3-1 at 18:22, with Granlund picking up an assist for his third point of the period. Scandella pushed the lead to 4-1 at 8:03 in the second period. Lowry scored to make it 4-2 at 9:42 before White made it 5-2 at 13:19. Perreault scored at 17:37 to make it 5-3. Wild defenseman Ryan Suter did not play after the first period. He was boarded by Jets defenseman Paul Postma at 14:54.
* Haula drew two Jets defenders deep in Winnipeg's zone while Zucker jumped off the bench on a line change and joined the rush. Haula made his pass through both defenders to Zucker, who was alone in front.
* Dubnyk made a save on a redirect off Bryan Little's stick and then stopped the rebound shot from Wheeler to preserve a 6-5 lead with the Jets net empty.
* Scheifele won a puck battle in the corner below the goal line and spun, picking out Laine waiting in the slot to score with a one-timer.
* Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien had five shots on goal, four hits and two blocked shots in 29:35.
Jets Quotes
"Every game matters so much now. To lose it in the last two minutes is tough." Scheifele said."It's not always fair in this league, I guess. I wouldn't say that we grossly outplayed them and deserved a better fate. You got to take some positives out of the fact that we battled back from a couple of deficits. We would have liked to at least get that to overtime." Blake Wheeler said.
"Turn the puck over in the offensive zone, first goal. Second goal we touched it three times in our end of the ice. Third one's a power-play goal. Fourth one we touched it twice in our end of the ice. So when you've got the puck on your stick you need to move to break out into position. And we turned the pucks over. It wasn't a matter of it rattling around on us. It was, we had it, they took it, we gave it to them and they put it quickly into the back of the net." Paul Maurice
Wild Quotes
"Backhand, no-look through two guys, it was an unbelievable pass. That was pretty impressive.""That wasn't an excuse for us. We had that game and we gave it back to them, let them back into the game too many times. That's not the way we want to play but we're happy to come away with two points."
Zucker said.
"It's fun. Every single game you're playing with good players and you're going to work hard, and we work hard. We've been getting results and that's fun, but there's still lots of season left and let's keep going." Mikael Granlund
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