ST. PAUL, Minn. –On Saturday at Xcel Energy Center Vladislav Namestnikov had a goal and two assists for the Winnipeg Jets in a 4-2 win against the Minnesota Wild.
“These are big, big games,” Namestnikov said. “Big points, much needed. Yeah, we’ve been talking about it all year if we wanted to be successful we’ve got to have all four lines contribute and look the same, and tonight we did that.”
A goal and an assist were by Alex Iafallo, and Winnipeg scored for Kyle Connor and Morgan Barron (47-24-6), after a six-game losing streak which has won three straight. 25 saves made by Connor Hellebuyck
The Jets, who have secured a Stanley Cup Playoff berth, behind the Colorado Avalanche moved two points for second place in the Central Division.
Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said, “Over there that’s a good hockey club.” “We held them to very few chances again. lot of shot attempts they had a lot of shot attempts I know the first period, but a lot of not a whole … I thought a good job managing the puck was done us a lot better as the game went on, going through the neutral zone and you saw a couple of shifts where we had them hemmed in their zone pretty good.
“They had us hemmed in there pretty good one play in the second, but overall it was a magnificent team effort.”
Twice scored by Kirill Kaprizon, two assists had by Mats Zuccarello, and 21 saves made by Marc-Andre Fleury for Minnesota (36-31-9), which has lost two in a row and three of four.
Wild coach John Hynes uttered, in our lineup tonight we needed more from the depth. “I mean, I thought our top two lines were going. Some of our [defensemen] were going. But I think our, depth in the lineup wasn’t good enough tonight.”
Into the playoffs from the Western Conference for the second wild card the Wild are 11 points behind the Nashville Predators.
“Disheartened. That’s for sure,” Fleury said of the likelihood of missing the finals. “I think we’ve been battling since [the] All-Star break. It… A bad record lately the last we don’t have, I don’t know how many games, but in the standings, we haven’t moved really
At 2:33 of the first period Namestnikov gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. In front of the finish, lafallo picked up the puck off a turnover by Alex Goligoski behind Minnesota’s net and fed Namestnikov.
At 8:46 Kaprizov tied it 1-1 with a pass from Zuccarello a spinning backhand from between the circles off.
On top 2-1 at 11:44 Connor put the Jets back, finishing a 2-on-1 off a pass from Sean Monahan.
At 15:42 on a power play, after Zuccarello fed him in the right circle for a slap shot to the far sideKaprizov tied it 2-2.
Zuccarello said, “In every game, we work hard and go hard.” “No one can take that from us. In some games, I think our skill has not been there in terms of scoring ourselves and just creating. You are working very hard, but you are not awarded and sometimes that’s hockey. But no one can take from this that every night we do our best and work hard and we go out, but that’s enough sometimes.”
By denying Adam Lowry Fleury kept it tied at 17:20 on a short-handed breakaway.
Iafallo gave the Jets a 3-2 lead at 13:39 of the second period, deflecting Brenden Dillon’s shot that got through traffic.
Barron increased the lead 4-2 at 9:46 of the third period, tipping in Dylan Samberg’s point shot.
Barron said, “In contrast, the puck just bounced our way a little bit more tonight than in the last few games.” “When you do that it is always fun. I saw they exchanged [the third goal to be credited to Iafallo] and there Alex had the goal. For ‘Dilly’ feeling bad, but on our line, everyone (with Namestnikov) gets one, so that is pretty cool.”
NOTES: Monahan’s helped extend to six games his point streak (three goals, three assists). The home point streak to 10 games (10 goals, eight assists) of Kaprizon was extended and in the wild history became the first player with multiple double-digit home point streaks (14 games in 2022-23). In his four NHL seasons (2021-22, 2022-23) he is one goal shy of scoring 40 for the third time.
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