The Winnipeg Jets celebrate a goal by Paul Stasny during the third period at Bell MTS Place.Terrence Lee/Reuters
Blake Wheeler was certain the second game would be different.
Two nights earlier, in Game 1 between Wheeler’s Winnipeg Jets and the Minnesota Wild, he thought there had been too much excitement, too many nerves, too much testosterone trying to establish dominance. It took a couple of periods for the hockey to break out.
Politely censoring himself, Wheeler described the first game – won 3-2 by his Jets – as “a cluster…”
Game 2, played Friday night at Bell MTS Place, was just as loud, just as much a “whiteout,” but far more hockey, much of it spectacular.
It also marked the Jets second playoff victory when, to the delight of a raucous sellout crowd, they dumped the Wild 4-1.
Asked in the morning how Wheeler, the Jets captain, would like to see Game 2 start, he quickly responded, “Ideal? Scoring a goal. That would be ideal. It doesn’t happen very often. Just winning a draw and trying to get a forecheck going, create a little energy…But ideal doesn’t happen very often.”
Instead, ideal appeared to be falling to the Wild. Game 2 was indeed different from Game 1. Minnesota wanted to make a statement early and they did, up 5-0 in shots and dominating during a power play – yet they could not get a puck past Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, he of the Vincent Price goatee and eyebrows.
Slowly, calmly, the Jets returned to the form they had shown in the third period of Game 1 when they came from behind to claim victory. They turned to their size, speed and skill and were soon outshooting the Wild, though they could not master goaltender Devan Dubnyk after the opening period.
“We’ve needed him,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said of his team’s goalie before Friday’s match. “We count on him.”
Despite being unable to beat Dubnyk early on, the Jets continued to play with a playoff confidence not seen before by Winnipeg fans. A hard thing to do when you’d only made the playoffs once before, in 2015, and were swept in four straight games by the Anaheim Ducks.
This was different. They now had a win, their first, in the NHL postseason.
“Going into the one in 2015,” said Jets centre Adam Lowry, “we were scratching and clawing just to get into the playoffs. It was kind of new to all of us. It was the first time. It was just like the city – happy to be there. Just trying to soak it all in. Now, coming into this one, we’ve had a great season and there’s more expectation. We’re not just happy to be here, we’re looking to win some games and keep moving forward.”
“We’ve talked at length about playoff experience for our team,” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said Friday morning. “We felt we had really good regular season experience this year and learned a bunch of things. But then you have to go through that process of what’s it like when you give up a lead. What’s it like when you get down and you’re in the third period. How do you handle it? The success that comes off winning a game – all of those are really important things to capture.”
That new confidence was shockingly apparent in the second period, when the Jets completely took over the game. It was not only the skill on attack, but the physical side on defence. Winnipeg defenceman Dustin Byfuglien – 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds – had Wild forwards cringing as they entered his territory, having seen teammate after teammate turned into rink-board advertising.
The crowd, already the loudest in the league, cranked up the sound.
Earlier in the day, Wild defenceman Matt Dumba had talked about how the ear-bursting crowd could play havoc with on-ice communications. “It can be tough at times,” he said. “Hopefully, we can control that tonight with a couple of goals.”
The crowd, however, got even louder when the Jets scored first. At the 8:41 mark of the second period, lanky Jets defenceman Tyler Myers twisted his way in from the blueline and pinged a shot from the right circle in off the far post that Dubnyk could not prevent.
Myers’ chance had been set up by young Jack Roslovic, dressed on an emergency basis to take the place of injured Mathieu Perreault.
“I’ve played in a couple of big games,” said the 21-year-old winger. “Nothing quite like this… It’s a beast of its own.”
By the start of the third period, the Jets held a 27-14 shot advantage, and the Wild clearly would have been in an even deeper hole if Dubnyk had not played so well.
The Jets continued to attack into the third and finally scored a second goal at the 6:42 mark when Patrick Laine, the 19-year-old Finnish sensation, got the puck from the back of the Wild net to Byfuglien – a defenceman, remember – and Byfuglien slipped the puck out to Paul Stastny, who flicked it high over Dubnyk’s glove.
Less than three minutes later, the Jets went up 3-0 when Andrew Copp was able to tip a goalmouth pass behind Dubnyk, with Bryan Little and Roslovic assisting.
Laine then scored his second of the playoffs to put the game away at 4-0 with only two minutes remaining when he one-timed a pass from Nikolaj Ehlers.
Minnesota finally scored on a late power play when Zach Parise tipped a pass from Mikko Koivu past Hellebuyck, but it was much too little much too late.
Little had said earlier in the day that he hoped his team could go up two-games-to-none against the more-experienced Wild.
“The first one, there’s always some nerves, some excitement,” he said. “That’s a good thing, too. Home-ice advantage in the playoffs, you have it for a reason. A perfect example is our arena. The fans are awesome.
“They give you that extra boost in your legs when you need them.”
They certainly did this night.