It took a little longer than expected to get into Saint Paul thanks to actual whiteout conditions and the worst April snow storm the state of Minnesota has seen in decades, but as of 8:00 AM CST Sunday morning the Winnipeg Jets made it into town and will be ready for game three.

Everything. They did pretty much everything right. They took what worked for them in game one – using their speed to create turnovers, hitting to separate opponent from puck and patience – and ramped it up in game two. The biggest key right now to this series is the Jets third and fourth lines which are absolutely outplaying their counterparts on the Wild which has absolutely wore out Minnesota as evidenced by a third period where the Jets added three more goals to their one goal lead and limited the Wild to just three shots – the first of which didn’t come until halfway into the final frame.

The only thing that hasn’t gone right for this series are the injuries to Tobias Enstrom and Mathieu Perreault as they remain game time decisions.

At this point, it may not even be about what they’ve done wrong as the Jets are forcing them into making mistakes and mental errors. The biggest challenge right now for the Wild is to take advantage of and score on whatever few chances the Jets give up which is something they didn’t do again early on in the first period when the Wild for a brief moment actually had a slight advantage in shots and scoring chances – the Wild actually had the first six shots of the game, but couldn’t beat Hellebuyck.

Scoring first will be huge tonight. It will get the crowd truly going and give the team a boost of confidence. On the defensive end of things, they really need to limit the Jets attack in the “home plate area” (the area in front of the Wild net that covers the slot and extends out to the two faceoff dots on each side) They also need to keep leaning on Dubnyk and hope he can continue to hold off the Jets offensive attack long enough to get a lead and maybe even build on it.

The third verse should be exactly the same as the first two, keep using speed and hard physical play to wear down the Wild. Even if Minnesota does score first, the Jets have proven in this series that a one goal lead is not a critical issue. Keep winning battles for 50/50 pucks and pepper Dubnyk with rubber until he breaks.

Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune understands that the scraps and fighting that closed out game two wasn’t really a case of the Wild “sending a message”:

There is no reason to believe that a change of location truly bothers the Jets or gives the Wild any kind of needed boost. The ability to match lines a little better should help Bruce Boudreau some, but it won’t be near enough if the bottom six forwards for Winnipeg keep playing like they are. Jets win 3-2.