WINNIPEG – Late in the third period, Jets goaltender Laurent Brossoit peeked behind him, but the puck wasn't there.
What would have been a Marco Rossi hat trick — and the Wild's third in two games — was gobbled up by Brossoit's gear.
"Almost," Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.
Such was the epithet of the Wild's encore to their highest-scoring game in franchise history, a 6-3 buzzkill by the Jets on Tuesday at Canada Life Centre in which the Wild flirted with staging another jaw-dropping rally but also never really had the execution to make it a reality.
"We gotta bear down," coach John Hynes said. "I think the process to get to those chances was good. But when you get that many looks and you're attacking offensively, you gotta find a way to get to the back of the net."
Winnipeg's Gabriel Vilardi scored twice, at the beginning of a two-goal, 14-second surge by the Jets in the first period and to kick off a three-goal tear in the third, but it was backup goalie Brossoit who was crowned the game's first star after his 36 saves.
After Vilardi converted on the power play at 9 minutes, 38 seconds of the third period, Sean Monahan put Winnipeg ahead 5-1 only 58 seconds later.
"It was two tips in the third that changed direction," said Fleury, who had 24 stops. "The power-play goal was a nice play backdoor. Couple shots I didn't see. I don't think we got outplayed by any means."
Overcoming a third-period deficit is how the Wild orchestrated their 10-7 thriller against the Canucks on Monday, their 10 goals and seven in the third period franchise highs, and they looked primed to follow the same strategy.
Kirill Kaprizov capitalized on the power play at 12:33 after scoring a hat trick vs. Vancouver, and then Rossi tipped in a Kaprizov shot at 14:11 for Rossi's third goal in the past two games, which tied Chicago's Connor Bedard at 17 for the NHL rookie lead; the assist by Kaprizov was his 14th point during a six-game point streak. Both power plays finished 2-for-4.
Soon after came that close call for Rossi, but the Wild weren't sinking shots like they were the previous afternoon and their rally fizzled
With 2:58 to go, Nino Niederreiter's empty-netter put the finishing touches on the Jets' third win of the season against the Wild.
Big picture, this was the Wild's first regulation loss in seven games, but it cost them moving into a tie for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference; they remain two points back. They also ended the game shorthanded since Zach Bogosian left because of an upper-body injury.
"When we scored, we were thinking, 'OK, now it's our turn,'" Rossi said. "We were pushing. That was good. But we got scored on. That's always hard when you pressure them so hard, and they score. It's kind of like a punch in the face moment."
The Wild and Winnipeg were reignited a rivalry that's been tense.
After Kaprizov was injured in the first matchup of the season on Dec. 30, Ryan Hartman was fined for high-sticking the Jets' Cole Perfetti in the Dec. 31 rematch.
Perfetti said Hartman told him the high stick was payback for Kaprizov's injury, but Hartman said he never went up to Perfetti and told him he hit him on purpose.
Starting from his first shift, Hartman was booed by the Jets crowd, but eventually fans had reason to cheer.
A Vilardi redirect on the power play at 9:20 gave Winnipeg the lead and during the very next shift, Mason Appleton sent a shot in a tight corner between the crossbar and Fleury's left shoulder.
"I didn't see the release, and it was in," Fleury said.
Then 1:54 into the second period, Kyle Conner connected from the middle of the slot, a shot set up by Vilardi.
Rossi responded with a power-play goal at 14:10, and the Wild believed they had another comeback in the works.
But they ran out of offense before they could catch up.
"We certainly should have had more goals than we did tonight," Hynes said. "Unfortunately, they didn't go in."
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