Kirill Kaprizov, Filip Gustavsson leave injured as Wild lose 4 2 to Jets in Winnipeg

Round 1 goes to the Jets. In the first of two games in two days between the Central Division rivals, Winnipeg held off the Wild 4 2 on Saturday afternoon at Canada Life Centre to end the Wild's four game win streak. The rematch is at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday. Former Wild forward Nino Niederreiter scored twice for the Jets, and their goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stopped 35 shots while denying a Wild comeback that came within a goal of erasing a three goal deficit.

Ryan Hartman started the rally at 10 minutes, 5 seconds of the second period when he capitalized on the power play (1 for 5) for his fourth goal in four games. Then just 20 seconds into the third period, Matt Boldy buried a behind the net pass from Kirill Kaprizov to trim the Jets' lead to 3 2.

Kaprizov now has 10 points during a six game point streak. Like Gustavsson, Kaprizov also left early after taking a cross check to the back from Brenden Dillon. But only 2:26 later, Winnipeg responded to reinstate a two goal cushion, a shot by Axel Jonsson Fjallby against Marc Andre Fleury, who replaced Filip Gustavsson for the third period after Gustavsson exited with a lower body injury; he had 19 saves.

Fleury finished with nine saves in his 999th career game. The Jets, who went 0 for 4 on the power play, opened the scoring at 3:59 of the first period on a fortuitous bounce: Alex Iafallo's shot caromed off captain Jared Spurgeon and hit Gustavsson's skate en route to the net. Spurgeon returned after missing seven games with a lower body injury.

With 5:22 to go in the first, Niederreiter tallied his first of the afternoon when he pounced on a puck that rolled through the crease. At 6:45 of the second, Niederreiter backhanded in his own rebound to give him five goals in his last five games vs. the Wild. The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game.

This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material..