Jordan Greenway became the first player in Wild franchise history to score his first NHL goal in the playoffs, and Minnesota romped to a victory over the Winnipeg Jets 6-2 Sunday night in Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Six Minnesota players scored goals across the first two periods as the Wild cut their series deficit to 2-1. Minnesota found the net with six of its first 22 shots, most goals in a home playoff game in franchise history.
Game 4 is Tuesday night, also on the Wild’s home ice.
Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Matt Dumba, Eric Staal, Greenway and Marcus Foligno produced the Minnesota goals. Except for Parise, who scored for the third time in the series, it was the first goal for the others in this postseason.
Greenway, a 21-year-old left winger, had played in six games in the regular season.
Mikko Koivu and Nick Seeler both provided two assists for the Wild.
There was no scoring in the third period and there were no penalties in the final 29 minutes of the game.
Blake Wheeler and Tyler Myers scored for Winnipeg, which had dominated stretches of the first two games at home. Even in this game, the Jets finished with a 31-29 advantage in shots on goal.
Snow blanketed the region in the day prior to the game, but a fired-up crowd of 19,175 turned out and liked what it saw.
Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves.
Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped 16 of 22 shots through two periods. Steve Mason replaced him for the third period and stopped all seven shots he faced.
The Jets scored first on Wheeler’s power-play goal at 4:50 of the first period after the second Minnesota penalty. It marked the first opening-period goal in the series for either team.
The Wild then scored twice on first-period power plays.
Minnesota pulled even just after the midway mark of the opening period when Granlund scored on a five-on-three advantage.
Parise worked himself free enough near the crease to bat in the puck for a 2-1 Wild lead at 17:50.
Minnesota scored four times on nine second-period shots.
Dumba’s goal just 3:32 into the second period gave the Wild a 3-1 cushion, but Myers answered with an unassisted goal slightly more than three minutes later.
Staal and Greenway posted Minnesota goals in a 20-second span late in the second period. Foligno got into the act less than 3 1/2 minutes later.