End-of-game collapse is expensive – Winnipeg Free Press

It was the beginning of a tough hockey game for any team, not to mention the one who was struggling to make headway in recent weeks. And things quickly deteriorated Tuesday night, as the Winnipeg Jets lost the lead and lost 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild.

Leading 2-1 with less than 90 seconds to play, the Jets allowed two goals in 26 seconds to defeat a win in front of a stunned crowd at Bell MTS Place.

Jason Zucker scored at 18:33 on the power play, which was actually a six-on-four with the goalkeeper shot. And then Joel Eriksson Ek hit in a loose puck at 6:59 pm, which resulted in a video review to confirm he was crossing the lines. Winnipeg launched a goalkeeper interference challenge that failed. The epic collapse is now over.

"It's hard for us right now, we spend a lot of time playing, but not enough, but we're doing enough to keep them out of the danger zone and the wheels are crumbling in the end," he said. Jets captain Blake Wheeler.

Winnipeg drops to 37-22-4 and remains in second place in the Central Division. They are one point behind the Nashville Predators, who lost Tuesday night in St. Louis. The Jets have three games in hand on the Predators. And do not look now, but here is the very lively Blues, four points away from the Jets.

<img src = "https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/NEP5532283.jpg" alt = "Kevin Hayes made his debut this Tuesday in Winnipeg, playing on the second row with Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perreault (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

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Minnesota improves to 31-27-6 and is in possession of first place in the Western Conference.

Tuesday's game was the start of nine straight games for the Jets against opponents currently in a playoff spot. The Jets started the night 3-5-2 in the last 10, away from the Stanley Cup contender. You can now win these three victories in the last 11 games.

"We obviously want to win more matches, we are able to win a lot of games, as we showed earlier in the season, but with this type of defense and the way we played in the last few minutes we We will not go to win these games, just try to find other ways and, hopefully, learn from those mistakes we have made and not to redo them, "said L & R. Attacker Patrik Laine.

The Jets had no problem defeating the Wild in five games in last season's playoffs, but are now empty in four regular season games this season, including two third-period implosions. They will meet again in Saint-Paul during the last trip on the road of the year.

"It's obviously not a good finish, it can not happen," said Laine. "Obviously, these division games are still huge, 0-4 against them this year, it's not our way of playing."

A burst of agreements on the deadlines of the exchanges led to five new faces in town on Monday, including a duet against the Wild. Center Kevin Hayes made his second-row debut with Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perreault, while defenseman Nathan Beaulieu jumped into the first pair with Jacob Trouba.

<img src = "https://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/NEP5532293.jpg" alt = "Minnesota's Brad Hunt celebrates the first goal of the Wild night, the team's only goal until the end of the day. at the end of the 90 seconds of the game (Trevor Hagan / The Canadian Press)

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"There was a lot of emotions at first, I was nervous, after the first couple I felt very good," Hayes said. "I thought we played well for 58 minutes, that's not the result we wanted, but we'll have the next one."

The road will not be any easier as the team is without defenders Josh Morrissey, Dustin Byfuglien and Joe Morrow due to injuries.

The addition of Hayes allowed head coach Paul Maurice to balance ice time on four lines, which seemed to give everyone a slight extra edge. The matches between the Jets and Wild are often tedious and controlled without leaving much room to move, but Tuesday's tilt was a much more open affair. The two guards must have been strong at various times. Connor Hellebuyck faced 39 shots in the Jets net, while Devan Dubnyk was 32.

"We are missing important people who play a lot of minutes and against the best of the other team, so I thought the pressure of our backs on the D-zone blanket was pretty solid," said Maurice.

Mark Scheifele led the way for the Jets midway through the first period, finishing a beautiful three-way pass with Minnesota outnumbered. Trouba, intercepting a bad Minnesota pass against his own blue line, quickly confided the puck to Kyle Connor, who dropped it to Laine, who found Scheifele for his 31st of the season, leader of his team.

Scheifele is no more than one of the 32 goals of his career in 2016-17.

Wool scooped a snap penalty in the offensive zone near half-time of the second period, giving Minnesota its first power play of the evening, and defender Brad Hunt charged them the cost while his sweet coach drilled a ton of traffic in front of him. the net, surprising Hellebuyck.

The match did not last very long, defenseman Ben Chiarot put the net to the net and then shot Laine's leg just 14 seconds later to restore Winnipeg's lead. Wool has scored 29 goals this season, just behind Scheifele. He now has four in his last three games after 15 games without scoring.

The biggest stop of the evening for Hellebuyck was directed by J. T. Brown escaped with just over 14 minutes to go in the third period, which seemed to preserve a big win. But then came the self-inflicted collapse.

Myers was penalized for an imprudent check with just over three minutes to play, giving the Wild the essential power play he has capitalized on. And then, still in shock from the tying goal, Jonas Brodin threw a puck to the net and Eriksson Ek was able to recover.

"I do not mean we lost the cover, we were standing next to the guy, but he put the puck in the goal, so we were light in front of our net," said Maurice to the winner.

Winnipeg is now 19-4-3 to lead after two periods.

The Jets are back in action Friday night when they welcome the Predators.

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