Jets Nation Recap: One down; three to go!

9 years ago

The Winnipeg Jets beat the Minnesota Wild in the goalscoring contest.

Winnipeg started the game in typical Jet fashion we have become accustomed to: fast, hard hitting, and tenacious forechecking. The Jets kept the pressure going, eventually forcing the Wild to take a penalty. Blake Wheeler capitalized on the power play, scoring his 26th of the season.

The game got physical and intense as emotions rose with the high stakes. Jets didn’t slow down or stand down and Drew Stafford got the insurance goal.

The Jets went into defensive shell mode for the third period and the Wild picked up the pace, but Ondrej Pavelec stood tall and closed the door, picking up another shutout.

Let’s break it down.

Three Keys

Good Pavelec Returns – Ondrej Pavelec seems to have two settings: great and really bad. After nearly a career best six game streak, Pavelec posted a 0.879 save percentage over three games combined. He came back though today. He wasn’t challenged much early, but late in the game the Wild came at him with everything possible.

Magical Perreault – Since Mathieu Perreault’s return from injury the forward has put up five assists in four games. Perreault helps more than in just scoring as he tends to be a possession stud and also distributes well on the power play. We missed you, Mathieu!

Play Off Push – Micah McCurdy’s model over at Hockeystats.ca had a regulation loss as a 30 percentage point swing, depending on the outcome of the game. Luckily (well more good fortune than luckily) the Jets won which instead improved the Jets chances by just under 15 percentage points, which now situates them near 80 percent chance of playoffs, until we get the outcome of the Los Angeles Kings game.

Charts and Stuff

Jets Individual 5v5 individual statistics:

Individual scoring chances (iSC), shot attempt differential (Corsi +/-), non-blocked shot attempt differential (Fen +/-), and offensive zone face off as percentage of all non-neutral zone face-offs: