1st Star: Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets
The Jets captain assisted on three of Winnipeg’s four goals during their 4-2 Game 1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Two of his helpers came in the first period as the Jets built up a 3-0 lead in the opening 7:35 of the game. His sweetest dish of the night came while setting up Patrik Laine’s power play goal in the first period.
2nd Star: Dustin Byfuglien, Winnipeg Jets
Big Buff continued his dominant postseason with a goal, an assist and a ton of minutes in Game 1. He opened the scoring after 65 seconds, fired the shot that Mark Scheifele would tip in to give the Jets a 4-1 lead and finished by logging 24:44 of ice time, three minutes more than any other Jets defenseman. It was also his effort that kept the puck onside during a sequence that would lead to the Laine goal.
What a play by Dustin Byfuglien to keep the puck onside before Patrik Laine scored pic.twitter.com/Celz8rbRd7
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) May 12, 2018
3rd Star: Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets
After scoring seven goals on the road in the second round, Scheifele netted his first goal at Bell MTS Place since Game 5 of the first round. He now leads all players with 12 goals this postseason.
[Jets give Golden Knights bitter dose of reality in Game 1]
Highlight of the Night: Blake, meet the Vegas bench.
Factoid of the Night:
The @NHLJets scored 3 goals in the first 7:35 of Game 1 against Vegas.
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 12, 2018
The last team to score 3 goals in the first 8 minutes of a conference final game was the Blackhawks in 1989 Game 2 at Calgary.#WPGWhiteout
Sunday’s schedule: Game 2: Capitals at Lightning, NBCSN, 8 p.m. ET (live stream)
MORE:
• Conference Finals schedule, TV info
• NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.