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Wild build lead, survive shotless third period to down Jets

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Jason Zucker scored twice as the Wild held on to beat the Jets, 3-2, for their third straight victory against their division rival this season.

The Minnesota Wild are exacting a bit of revenge against the Winnipeg Jets this season.

For the second time in 13 days and third time this season, the Wild have found their way past the Jets. A 4-2 win back in November was followed up by a 3-1 win on Dec. 29 and then on Thursday night on NBCSN, the Wild did just enough to earn a 3-2 win despite not shooting one puck on goal in the third period.

Considering the Jets owned the Wild last season (3-1-0 in the regular season a before bouncing Minnesota in five games in the playoffs), it’s a decent consolation given that last season is behind them and the Wild are in a dogfight at the moment for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Whatever the formula is, it’s proven to be potent. The Wild have figured out how to stall Winnipeg’s power play -- Winnipeg’s bread and butter -- and stymie them 5-on-5.

Their game plan worked well once again after building a 3-0 lead, including back-to-back goals by Jason Zucker in the second period.

Winnipeg finally found a hole in Devan Dubnyk with 41 seconds left in the second. Given that the Jets had 57 goals this season in the third period, it wasn’t over but they needed a big period.

They engineered just that, outshooting the Wild 13-0 in the period (Minnesota’s only real flaw in the game). It was all Jets, and Mark Scheifele pulled Winnipeg to 3-2 with the extra attacker on the ice at 17:22.

But even with Minnesota’s failure to put a shot on goal, it was Devan Dubnyk, who stopped 26-of-28, that proved to be the difference as the Wild erased bad memories of a 4-0 loss to the Bruins on Tuesday.

Patrik Laine’s struggles continued on Thursday. His most notable moment was a giveaway in the first period, which isn’t what you’d want to hear if you’re a prolific sniper.

Streaky is the name of Laine’s game, and has been since he got into the NHL as the second overall pick in 2016.

He’s got 24 goals this season, tied for 10th in the NHL, but they largely came in one white-hot stretch. Here’s the breakdown:


  • First 12 games: three goals
  • Next 12 games: 18 goals
  • Next 19 games: three goals

Laine’s bound to bite back with a vengeance, that’s what he does. But the Jets are missing that scoring, especially on the power play, where they are now five-for-25 over their past 10 games. If you take out their 3-for-4 performance against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, it only looks worse.

Full credit to the Wild, who paid no attention to Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba, who was operating up top on the point. That allows the Wild to cover off Blake Wheeler, Scheifele and, of course, Laine. Winnipeg’s power play went 0-for-4.

They also blocked 22 shots in the game. That’s a committed effort in a team as dangerous as Winnipeg is with the puck.

Here’s Charlie Coyle on the success Minnesota found:


Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck