St. Paul - Jason Zucker scored two second period goals, and the Wild defense played well as Minnesota defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 at the Excel Energy Center.
Zucker, who hadn’t scored a point in his past 7 games, scored his first goal deflecting a shot from Mikko Koivu past Connor Hellebuyck on the Power Play. Minutes later Zucker would score his second on a break away after stepping out of the penalty box.
“I was definitely very critical of myself and I think I deserved that," Wild forward Jason Zucker said. "It was nice to be able to get those couple, but I've got to do it consistently now.”
“For this team it seems when we are winning, it is a different person do something every night," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau added. "It is good to see Zuck score, in the next little while you’ll other guys start to score as well.”
While Zucker was able to to get going on one end, the Wild defense played well on the other end blocking 22 Winnipeg shots. Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 of 26 shots he faced, and the Wild penalty killers stopped Winnipeg on all four chances to help preserve the win.
“That was outstanding [Penalty Killing], it is the only word you can use for it," Boudreau said after the game. "Bob put a great plan together, everybody knows what these guys are going to do it is just very difficult to stop them because they are so good.”