Wild at Jets
The Minnesota Wild keep winning and forward Mikael Granlund keeps scoring entering Tuesday’s visit to the Winnipeg Jets. Granlund, named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week on Monday, scored six points - tied for most in the league last week - in three games, including his first career hat trick to highlight a four-point performance in Saturday’s 6-3 victory over Vancouver.
"It's fun but I'm even more glad we got the win and we are on the right path again after the last game,'' Granlund told reporters after extending his points streak to 12 games as Minnesota bounced back from a 5-1 loss in Calgary. The Jets opened the week three points out of the final wild-card spot in the West, after their three-game winning streak overall and nine-game win streak against Central Division opponents ended in Saturday’s 5-2 loss at Colorado. “It wasn’t our day,” Winnipeg goaltender Ondrej Pavelec told reporters after the Jets went 3-0-1 in their past four games, all away from home, “but overall it was a good road trip and now we’re going home.” Minnesota is 2-0-0 against Winnipeg this season, getting game-winning goals from defenseman Jonas Brodin in 4-3 and 3-1 victories.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN North (Minneapolis), FSN Wisconsin, TSN3 (Winnipeg)
ABOUT THE WILD (34-12-5): Granlund has 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) during his franchise-record points streak as Minnesota leads the Western Conference by four points over Chicago and San Jose. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk allowed eight goals in his past two games, but still leads the NHL in wins (28, tied with Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky), save percentage (.932) and goals-against average (1.99). The Wild have the best goals differential (plus-53) in the conference.
ABOUT THE JETS (25-26-4): Center Mark Scheifele, who went pointless Saturday after recording seven in his previous three games, has 25 goals and 28 assists to sit within eight points of the career high he reached last season (61). Pavelec allowed at least three goals in each of his seven games, and Winnipeg ranks near the bottom of the NHL in goals allowed per game (3.11). Forward Patrik Laine (43) started the week one point behind Toronto's Mitch Marner for the rookie points lead while his 23 goals were tied with Auston Matthews - Marner's teammate - for most among rookies.
OVERTIME
1. Winnipeg is 13-5-1 against the Central Division, but 12-21-3 against the rest of the league.
2. Minnesota F Jason Pominville has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past eight games.
3. The Wild have outshot the Jets 57-33 in the first two meetings of the season.