Saturday, January 4, 2020 02:00 PM (ET)

Staal's OT goal lifts Wild over Jets

Field Level Media
Jan 4, 2020

Eric Staal scored a power-play goal at 1:52 of overtime as the Minnesota Wild rallied to defeat the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minn.

Luke Kunin and Marcus Foligno also scored for Minnesota, which had lost its previous two games against Winnipeg this season by a combined score of 11-2. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk made 19 saves.

Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele scored power-play goals for the Jets, who dropped to 2-6-1 in their past nine games. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 41 of 44 shots.

The Wild got a man advantage in overtime after Wheeler was called for slashing Mats Zuccarello's stick out of his hands.

Ryan Suter's slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle was stopped by Hellebuyck and Minnesota's Zach Parise knocked the rebound free during a scramble in front of the net. Staal found the puck and slid a backhander just inside the right post for the winner as the Wild snapped a two-game home losing streak. Minnesota won for the first time in five tries in games this season decided in the five-minute overtime session.

The Wild forced overtime on Kunin's tying goal at 14:30 of the third. Foligno carried the puck down the left wing and made a behind-the-back centering pass to Kunin between faceoff circles. Kunin took the pass, spun to his forehand and put a shot off Hellebuyck's right hip and into the net.

The score was tied 1-1 entering the third period before Wheeler scored on the power play just 52 seconds in.

Scheifele sent a pass to Kyle Connor behind the Minnesota net and he waited until finding Wheeler alone in the right faceoff circle. Wheeler's knuckling shot found the upper left corner of the net.

Scheifele's goal came 39 seconds into the second period. Wheeler made a cross-ice pass to Scheifele at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and his one-timer squeezed just inside left post as Dubnyk was moving across the goalmouth.

Foligno gave the Wild the lead just 1:12 into the first period, taking a backhanded, cross-ice pass from Joel Eriksson Ek and hammering the puck into a nearly empty net from close range. Kunin also got an assist on the play.

--Field Level Media

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