LDN - Sports

Pominville, Niederreiter help Wild defeat Jets

[February 08, 2017] WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The Winnipeg Jets dominated the Minnesota Wild in virtually every offensive category Tuesday night but the visitors eclipsed their hosts where it really mattered -- goals scored -- in posting a 4-2 victory at the MTS Centre.

The Wild (35-12-5) stormed out to a 3-0 lead before the game was 23 minutes old and withstood a furious barrage from the Jets (25-27-5) to post their second consecutive victory and extend their lead atop the Western Conference and Central Division.

The Wild were paced by right wingers Nino Niederreiter and Jason Pominville, who each scored twice, while Devan Dubynk turned aside 38 in net -- although he received much-needed help from his defensemen on a couple shots that trickled through his legs and nearly over the goal line.

Center Charlie Coyle recorded three assists while Pominville added a pair.

The Jets received goals from center Bryan Little, his 16th, and right winger Joel Armia, his fourth.

Ondrej Pavelec, starting his eighth game in goal since being recalled from the Manitoba Moose last month, left with an undisclosed lower body injury shortly after surrendering the Wild's third goal. He stopped 11 of 14 shots while Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 10 shots he faced in relief.

The Jets outshot the Wild 40-25, outhit them 16-7, had twice as many takeaways (10-5), one-third the number of giveaways (15-4) and if there was a time of possession clock, they would have dominated there, too.

Because of all that, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said he was proud of the effort put forth by his team at the end of a four-game road trip.

"Especially in the third when they didn't have much left in the tank, I thought they played with really good structure and really smart to hold (the Jets) off," Boudreau said. "That's what winning's hockey about."

Boudreau moved Coyle from center to the wing when he shortened his bench and went to three lines in the third period.

"I thought he was our best player. He got three assists, he was all over the ice, had chances to score, so it was his best game in a while. He was very noticeable," he said.

The fact that the new line of Pominville, Coyle and Niederreiter gelled right away hasn't surprised the coach.

"It seems like there's a different hero every night,'' Boudreau said. "Charlie's a good player and he doesn't get a lot of notice. Maybe it's because we're in Minnesota or whatever the reason, but he's a good player and tonight he came to play and so did Niederreiter.

"Pominville got four points. I mean, those guys held us down. Other nights, it's either the (Eric) Staal line or the (Mikko) Koivu line. Tonight it was that line."

Coyle said he was just happy to contribute to a Wild win.

"It was a little different playing at center tonight but it felt good getting speed up the middle with Pominville and Niederreiter and we had some good chemistry early on,'' Coyle said. "They were just simple plays that got to the net and they happened to go in and that made us feel good about ourselves."

The Wild might have been able to salt the game away a little earlier when they were awarded a penalty shot on a play that even had some of the players involved confused at the 3:48 mark of the third period. Left winger Jason Zucker dropped his stick behind the Jets net and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien cleared it away and toward Wild center Mikael Granlund, prompting the whistle for "throwing an object on the ice."

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Wild right wing Jason Pominville (not shown) scores a goal past on Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec (31) during the second period at MTS Centre. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports

Granlund's one-handed deke attempt was foiled by Hellebuyck as his 12-game point streak came to an end.

"That was something new I learned today. I had no clue (about the rule)," Byfuglien said.

Dubnyk, who appeared headed to the scrapheap a couple of years ago after playing for the Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators and Arizona Coyotes -- not to mention the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs -- in less than a year-and-a-half, is now in the conversation to win the Vezina Trophy this season. He said he was only too pleased to bail out his teammates a couple of times in the first period.

"Well, that's my job. That's literally my only job so it's nice," Dubnyk said with a smile. "The guys have been scoring lots of goals for me so it's nice to kick some out for them. To consistently come out in the third periods and show that we can pull it together and lock it down, I mean, that's the sign of a great hockey team."

Jets coach Paul Maurice took little solace in the moral victory but said Tuesday night's game was as good as his team has played in "an awfully long time."

"We had a combined total of 33 shots against this team in the first two games we played against them,'' Maurice said. "We put up 40 shots tonight. We got a couple almost in behind him. We had more offense in this game than in the other two games combined.

"Winning is everything in pro sports but you have to have an assessment of your game that's honest. Over our last five games, that's as well as we've played in a while against some pretty good teams. We played the best team in our conference and I think we were better. I think we were better than they were over the course of the game."

NOTES: Jets RW Drew Stafford returned to the lineup after missing six games because of a lower-body injury. RW Chris Thorburn got a spot in the press box alongside D Julian Melchiori and G Michael Hutchinson. ... Joining them from the Wild were C Jordan Schroeder, D Jonas Brodin and D Nate Prosser. ... The Jets' 5-2 loss to Colorado on Saturday ended a nine-game winning streak against teams from the Central Division. ... Wild assistant coach John Anderson served two seasons as the coach of the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-10. ... The Wild host Chicago on Wednesday, and the Blackhawks visit Winnipeg on Friday.

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