How sweep it is

The Winnipeg Jets have wrapped up 2023 with a bang. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * The Winnipeg Jets have wrapped up 2023 with a bang. A gritty 3 2 comeback victory on Sunday afternoon in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild is just the latest in a growing list of impressive accomplishments for a hockey club making plenty of noise around the NHL right now.

After falling behind by scores of 1 0 and 2 1 in enemy territory against a surly opponent, the calm, cool and collected Jets rallied to sweep a weekend home and home series with their closest rivals. “We keep playing the same way. We’re a resilient group, It’s a hard working group. We know we don’t give up much.

We just stay in the fight,” Jets coach Rick Bowness told reporters at the Xcel Energy Center. Winnipeg’s impressive depth came though once again, with goals from forwards Adam Lowry, Vlad Namestnikov and Dominic Toninato, and 24 saves from backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit. “There is never quit on this team,” said Namestnikov.

“I think we know it’s a 60 minute game. A lot can happen in that time. We go down, we just keep with our business and keep going.” The Jets improve to 22 9 4 on the year — the best record they’ve ever had after 35 games in any season — and that includes a truly memorable December in which they went 10 1 2.

This was also the 25th straight game in which they’ve surrendered no more than three goals. Minnesota falls to 16 15 4. They began the weekend eight points behind Winnipeg, no doubt hoping to cut that down to four if things went well. Now they are 12 back. “You know what, even the run we’ve been on there’s not a whole lot of separation in our division,” Lowry told reporters of the mindset coming into an important weekend.

“We know how critical down the stretch divisional games are, and we know how hard it is to beat the same team on back to back nights. They make adjustments, generally the team that lost comes out pretty hard and are able to rebound.” There are plenty of takeaways from this one. Let’s break them down: Toninato is only in the lineup these days because several Jets forwards — Kyle Connor, Rasmus Kupari and, most recently, David Gustafsson — are injured.

But the Duluth native is making the most of his opportunity. Toninato’s first NHL goal of the season was a huge one, breaking a 2 2 tie with just over 12 minutes left in regulation. It came on a delayed penalty to Minnesota, with Brossoit out for an extra attacker, and Toninato going hard to the net and chipping a puck past Wild goaltender Marc Andre Fleury.

Winnipeg’s fourth line continues to produce, as linemates Axel Jonsson Fjallby and Morgan Barron were once again making life miserable for Minnesota. “It’s always nice to beat these guys. They’re a really good team. Obviously, the rivalry has been heating up over the years. To be able to get both (wins), to get back to Winnipeg with both, is huge,” Toninato, who now has three points in three games this year, told reporters.

“It’s always so special to be able to play in front of family and friends and play in a spot you grew up playing and watching in. Really special night, not only for me and the team, but also for the family.” Toninato was put out by Bowness in the final minute of play, with Fleury now on the bench as the Wild pressed to tie it, and he came up with a massive shot block in the dying seconds to preserve the victory.

“He’s played great since we brought him up,” said Bowness. “He’s taken full advantage of the opportunity and he’s a point a game guy, he’s winning faceoffs, he’s playing hard, he’s playing smart. He hit the post in Chicago and could have had a (game) winner there, late in the game.

He’s doing a lot of good things to help this team win.” Winnipeg’s power play has been a storyline for all the wrong reasons, and it sure looked like it might rear its ugly head again. After all, the Jets not only came up short on their first two attempts earlier in the game, but Minnesota’s Frederick Gaudreau cashed in on their only chance at 3:56 of the third period to grab a 2 1 lead.

Would not so special teams cost them once again? Not so fast said Namestnikov, who ripped a wicked wrister past Fleury at 4:52 of the final frame to get the Jets back on even terms. “It felt really good,” Namestnikov told reporters. “I thought we were getting better the previous couple games. We were getting more pucks on net, but sometimes it’s just not going in.

So it was nice to see that one go in.” Winnipeg entered the game just 3 for 30 over the last 12 games. “We needed that,” said Bowness. “The power play, clearly, has been struggling but that (second) group has scored our last four power play goals. Clearly it was a great shot by Vladdy. We needed a response and they gave it to us.” Lowry leads in so many ways, and that was on display again Sunday.

First, he accepted an invitation to drop the gloves with Minnesota’s Patrick Maroon right off the opening face off. The fight was a product of Saturday’s game, in which star Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov suffered an injury after being cross checked twice by Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon, who was not penalized.

Minnesota wasn’t happy, especially with Kaprizov ruled out of the re match. “He just asked if I wanted to go,” said Lowry. “We knew they would come out and probably be looking for a response after Kaprizov gets hurt. Just settle things down. Try to get it out of the way rather than wait a little bit.

He asked me politely, let me take the faceoff and it was one of the few ones I won tonight. So got that out of the way and we were able to play some hockey.” After Marcus Foligno opened the scoring for the home team late in the first period, Lowry got his team right back in it when he scored just 2:08 into the middle frame.

Nino Niederreiter made a great zone entry to get it going, and Lowry ended up pouncing on a loose puck to score his seventh of the season, which happened to be the 100th of his career. “It’s something I’ll look back on and be proud of. I’m not necessarily known really for my scoring, so it’s nice to be able to contribute once in a while,” said Lowry.

“Hopefully I can score another 100 in this league, and it doesn’t take me a decade.” Several Jets players wished Fleury well in the pre game warmup, skating over to where he was doing stretches at centre ice. Then they ensured his 1,000th game wouldn’t end with a win. As a result, “Flower” was denied a chance to move into a tie for second all time in NHL wins with Patrick Roy.

“He’s got 999 other ones he can probably celebrate,” Lowry joked. “That’s a tremendous accomplishment, an amazing career, and it was pretty cool to be able to share the ice with a guy like that.” Fleury, who is just the fourth member of Club 1000 along with Roy, Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, stopped 26 of 29 shots he faced.

He also had some help from his posts, with the Jets ringing iron on three occassions. Winnipeg has now put a puck off the pipe nine teams in the last three games. Give the Jets video coaches a big assist for wiping a Ryan Hartman goal off the board in the first period. Winnipeg challenged that the zone entry was offside, and replay showed they were correct.

Speaking of Hartman, he caught Cole Perfetti with an undetected high stick early in the first period that sent the Jets forward to the room for some repairs to his lip. Perfetti returned to action, then came up wincing after crashing hard into his own goal later in the period in a move that might have saved a goal.

The Jets called up tough guy Jeffrey Viel from the Manitoba Moose earlier in the day, but he ultimately didn’t play. Defencemen Declan Chisholm and Logan Stanley were the other two healthy scratches. The Jets chartered home immediately after the game and will enjoy New Year’s Day away from the rink.

They return to action on Tuesday night when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning. mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca X: @mikemcintyrewpg Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer. Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler.

But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer. Advertisement Advertisement.