The Winnipeg Jets had played a shutdown third period and finally scored an empty-net goal with 11 seconds remaining to defeat the Wild 2-0 on Tuesday night. This reversed the blowout loss two nights earlier in St. Paul, and gave the Jets a 3-1 series lead entering Friday night's game in Winnipeg.
The NHL has an abundance of players from the Twin Cities. Jets captain Blake Wheeler is one of those, from Robbinsdale, a superstar at Breck School, a three-year Minnesota Gopher, and he was asked a version of what's a traditional question:
"Any extra excitement in getting a first playoff win back home in Minnesota?''
Wheeler shrugged, not indifferently but as a candid response, and said: "This is really for the people in Winnipeg. The way they have supported us, the way our building was for Games 1 and 2 … we were hoping to come back with a chance to win a series in front of them."
Winnipeg has a metropolitan population of 780,000. It's the smallest city to serve as home to a team in the four major pro leagues, other than Green Bay.
"There are players who come to Winnipeg and they don't want to be there," Walt Dixon said. "We're too small for them. Blake has embraced Winnipeg. That's reason No. 2 we are fans of him. Reason No. 1 is that he's an outstanding player and the leader of this team."
Rob Fulton nodded and said, "That's what you always hear and read from the locker room: 'Blake Wheeler is our leader.'"
Dixon and Fulton were at a booth with four other people in Jets jerseys on Tuesday in Tom Reid's Hockey Pub on W. 7th St. An hour earlier and three blocks away, the Jets had taken the 3-1 lead in the series.