• Editor's note: Chris Hine will write a North Score from home Wild and Wolves playoff games, focusing on three analytical points from the game and series.
Throughout the regular season, the Wild allowed a lot of shot attempts relative to the ones it took. But its calling card for success has been limiting the number of "high-danger shots" its opponents take from the area around the net and in the slot during 5-on-5 play. The Wild were third in a metric known as high-danger Corsi percentage.
However, in this series, the Jets are beating the Wild at its own game.
For the series, the Jets have 35 shot attempts from the high-danger area during 5-on-5 play, the Wild only 19.
In Game 4, the disparity shows up in the numbers — the Jets had 12 to the Wild's four. Winnipeg had five alone in the third period. It also happened that the Jets' lone 5-on-5 goal from Mark Scheifele came on a high-danger shot just inside the right circle. So while the Wild may have led the Jets in shots on goal 30-28, the Jets were getting in the more dangerous areas.
All this came on an "off night" for the Jets, according to coach Paul Maurice.
"We skated harder, better and faster tonight," Maurice said. "I don't know that either team moved the puck the way they wanted to, so I thought there was still a lot of missed offense that never generated from the tops of circles to the red lines for both teams."
The Wild were already behind the 8-ball offensively having to play without defenseman Ryan Suter in this series, but the loss of Zach Parise to a fractured sternum was an additional gut punch. The Jets did a commendable job of keeping the Wild to the outside, especially in the third period and not letting the Wild get into those areas.
