Wild charge back from early deficit, edge Jets
SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- A spirited second period comeback by the Minnesota Wild netted their first win of the season. Trailing by a pair, Minnesota got goals from Chris Stewart, Matt Dumba, Eric Staal and Jonas Brodin to beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Saturday.
Goalie Devan Dubnyk added 14 saves for the Wild (1-1-0) who improved to 14-0-2 all-time in home openers. It was also the first win with the Wild for new coach Bruce Boudreau, who came to Minnesota in the off-season after being let go by Anaheim.
Nikolaj Ehlers, Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele scored and Michael Hutchinson had 27 saves for Winnipeg (1-1-0), which took an early lead but was thoroughly dominated in the middle period and never recovered.
Leading 3-2 late, the Wild got the game-winning goal from Brodin, who used Jets defender Tyler Myers as a screen and beat Hutchinson over the right shoulder. Scheifele pulled the Jets back within a goal with 18.7 seconds left and the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, but they did not get another shot.
Minnesota's first power play of the game produced some early tension, but no goals despite Mikael Granlund clanking a shot off the right post. It looked as if the teams would head to the first intermission scoreless until the Jets popped in a pair of goals in the final 90 seconds.
Ehlers took advantage of a Wild turnover to notch his first goal of the season. Brodin's clearing attempt didn't get to the blue line because Ehlers picked it off and unleashed a rising slap shot that beat Dubnyk's glove hand.
In the final seconds of the period, Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien picked up a loose puck behind the Wild net, circled to the blue line and flipped the puck toward the crowd congregated in front of Dubnyk. The goalie didn't see Wheeler deflect the puck into the upper left corner of the net for his second goal of the season.
Minnesota stormed back in the second period, with Stewart getting them on the board first. He fought off a Byfuglien check at the top of the crease and slipped a shot past Hutchinson. The goalie swatted the puck away, but not before it had fully crossed the goal line -- as was confirmed by replay. Dumba tied the game at 2-2 with a power-play slap shot from the blue line after Stewart fed him the puck off the faceoff.
Stewart got some extra rest later in the period, heading off for five minutes after a fight with Jets winger Chris Thorburn.
Staal, who joined the Wild over the summer, gave the team its first lead of the season late in the second, capping off a 2-on-1 rush to the net by tapping the puck past Hutchinson after a cross-ice pass from Charlie Coyle.
NOTES: Minnesota G Devan Dubnyk played his 300th NHL game. He made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers in 2009 and has been the Wild's mainstay in goal since being acquired in a 2015 trade with the Arizona Coyotes. ... Winnipeg scratched C Bryan Little (lower-body injury) and he may be out for an extended period of time after suffering a lower body injury in the win at Carolina on Thursday. ... The Wild honored the memory of Jacob Wetterling on Saturday, wearing No. 11 helmet stickers. Wetterling was an 11-year-old youth hockey player from central Minnesota who was abducted and murdered in 1989. His body was discovered this September. Members of the Wetterling family were recognized on the ice befire the game. ... The Jets open a three-game homestand against the Boston Bruins on Monday. Minnesota is in the midst of its first homestand and hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.