Minnesota Beats Winnipeg 3-0 as Jets Shut Out for Third Time this Season

Jets can't score, drop second straight game

All streaks are meant to end. The Winnipeg Jets’ nine-game winning streak against the Minnesota Wild ended with a thud on Sunday afternoon.

The red-hot Wild came to town on Sunday and shut out the Jets 3-0 as Winnipeg couldn’t solve the mystery of Minnesota goaltender Jesper Wallstedt. Meanwhile, the Wild had no trouble beating Jets goalie Eric Comrie by shooting the puck high and often to the short side.

It was the third time this season the Jets have been shut out – twice on home ice.

Winnipeg has now lost two straight games, both at home, and will head out on a five-game road trip that could make or break the season. That’s right, it’s only November and the Jets could find themselves in big trouble if they don’t have a better trip this time. The six-game trip they took in early November resulted in a 2-4 record and dropped them from first to third in the Division. Losing two out of three on this homestand left the Jets at 12-9-0 and out of a playoff position for the first time in two years.

Mark Scheifele and the Jets couldn't beat Jesper Wallstedt (Photo by Scott Stroh)

All in all, for Winnipeg, Sunday afternoon’s whitewashing was an ugly loss.

Granted, it didn’t help that the Jets lost defenceman Neal Pionk to a lower body injury after his first shift. That left Winnipeg with five D-men for almost the entire game.

The Jets played a solid first period, outshot the Wild 9-7 and yet couldn’t find a way to beat Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt. The period finished 0-0 and the fans appeared quite happy to head out for a beer.

In the second period, the Jets were the better team and had the most chances, but the Wild took advantage of the two good ones they had.

Minnesota’s Danila Yurov scored his third of the year to open the scoring at 8:23 of the second period as he took a pass from Yakov Trenin and beat Eric Comrie to the short side. Winnipeg defenceman Logan Stanley lost the puck to Trenin behind the net and then was caught flat-footed as Yurov whipped it past Comrie.

Minnesota put the game away at 18:12 of the second period with the Jets on the power play. The Wild’s Marcus Johansson picked up a loose puck in his own zone skated into Jets territory and fed a perfect pass onto the stick of Brock Faber who beat Comrie bar-down. It was a beautiful shot, giving Faber his fifth of the season, and giving the Wild a 2-0 lead against a team that was not only struggling to score, but didn’t seem to have a chance against Wallstedt.

In fact, Adam Lowry pounding on Marcus Foligno during a brief fight was the only bright spot for the Jets in the second period.

At the 6:29 mark of the third period, the Wild made it 3-0 as Kiril Kaprisov scored his 13th of the year with a high shot to the short side. Comrie didn’t have a chance on the shot that went up over his shoulder and off the roof of the cage. It was a true goalscorer’s goal and it put a wrap on the proceedings.

Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 32-29 and won 57.1 percent of the faceoffs. The Jets had plenty of scoring chances – they were zero-for-four on the power play -- but either they were gripping their sticks a little too tightly or Wallstedt was simply on top of the proceedings. The Minnesota goaltender was superb.  

The Jets play again on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. Game time is 6 p.m. on Sportsnet West.