The Winnipeg Jets have to be feeling pretty good about themselves as they go into tonight’s contest with the division rival Minnesota Wild after having their best offensive output of the season in a winning cause over the Penguins. The Jets also sit in the middle of a Central division log jam with the Stars, Avalanche, Predators and Blackhawks with games in hand on every other team listed.

After coming home for a single game, the Jets are down the road now for a solo game before they return this weekend for a pair of games at the friendly confines of Bell MTS Place.

Up until Sunday night, the Jets had been racking up wins and points, but it wasn’t necessarily pretty. Sunday night all that changed as the Jets unloaded a five-goal outburst – three of them belonging to the captain Blake Wheeler – en route to a 7-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Jets now since opening the season with two awful losses have now only lost once in regulation in their last eight games. The game against the Penguins also marked the first time the club truly had contributions from all four lines as the bottom six chipped in with three goals of their own (Armia, Tanev and Lemieux). The Jets maybe shouldn’t expect that level of production every game, but it is nice to take pressure off the top lines when it happens.

The Minnesota Wild continue to fight the injury bug but may get a bit of relief back tonight as Nino Niederreiter should be making his return to the lineup. They are still without forwards Zack Parise who could be looking at potential back surgery, and Charlie Coyle . Since their loss to the Jets almost two weeks ago, the Wild have won three of their last four games, including a 2-1 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. Chris Stewart has been leading the way offensively for the Wild with six goals. A lot of the Wild’s struggles can be linked back to goalie Devan Dubnyk who has only managed a .905 save percentage while posting a 3-3-1 record. The Wild need him to be better than he has been to be considered a threat in the Central division.

11 days ago the Jets and Wild played a game of “who wants this win, no you take it” as both teams gave up leads at different points of the game. The Jets jumped out to a two goal lead before allowing the Wild to score the next three before rallying themselves with two goals in the third period to defeat their division rivals.  This is game number two between the teams, their next meeting after tonight comes almost a month from now, November 27 in Winnipeg.

Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler

Nikolaj Ehlers -Bryan Little-Patrik Laine

Shawn Matthias- Andrew Copp-Brandon Tanev

Brendan Lemieux-Matt Hendricks-Joel Armia

Josh Morrissey-Jacob Trouba

Toby Enstrom-Dustin Byfuglien

Dmitry Kulikov-Tyler Myers

Steve Mason

Connor Hellebuyck

Jason Zucker-Mikko Koivu-Mikael Granlund

Nino Niederreiter-Eric Staal-Tyler Ennis

Marcus Foligno-Joel Eriksson Ek-Chris Stewart

Daniel Winnik-Matt Cullen-Luke Kunin

Ryan Suter-Jared Spurgeon

Mike Reilly-Jonas Brodin

Kyle Quincey-Matthew Dumba

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

As mentioned, the Jets have to be feeling good going into the game tonight and while Niederreiter will give the Wild a much needed boost on offense, Dubnyk is not looking like the same goalie that he’s been over the last couple of seasons. The Jets jump on the Wild again early and this time don’t give up a lead. Jets win 5-2.