Sept. 26 Game Notes at Minnesota Wild
The Winnipeg Jets play their last road game of the pre-season tonight when they travel to face the Minnesota Wild…The Jets beat the Calgary Flames 5-4 in overtime on Monday night to extend their pre-season winning streak to three games…Winnipeg concludes its pre-season schedule tomorrow night back at Bell MTS Place against the New Jersey Devils.
Best Pre-Season Ever?
With wins tonight and tomorrow, the Jets will post their best pre-season record in franchise history at 6-1-0…The franchise won five pre-season games in 2003 and 2005 when it was located in Atlanta…The Jets need to earn one more point to have their best pre-season record since relocation in 2011…The current best record is 4-3-0 from 2016.
Working Overtime
The Jets have won twice in overtime during the pre-season – 4-3 on Friday at home against Calgary and 5-4 in Calgary on Monday…The Jets were 9-8 in overtime games last season, which was 19th in the NHL.
Wild Foes
The Jets went 3-1 against the Wild in 2017-18 during the regular season and then dispatched of Minnesota in five games in the first round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs…Mark Scheifele had six points (1G, 5A) in three regular season games against the Wild, while Blake Wheeler matched that with six points (2G, 4A) in four regular season games…Scheifele (4G, 1A) and Dustin Byfuglien (5A) each paced the Jets in scoring against Minnesota in the playoffs…Dating back to 2015, the Jets are 14-7-0 in their last 21 regular season and playoff games against the Wild.
State of Buff and Wheels
Minnesotans Dustin Byfuglien (Roseau) and Blake Wheeler (Plymouth) have enjoyed more success against the Wild than any Minnesotans since the Wild entered the NHL for 2000-01 season…Byfuglien leads all Minnesotans in scoring against the Wild with 32 points (8G, 24A) in 39 career games, while Wheeler is second with 26 points (11G, 15A) in 30 games…Byfuglien is 20-15-4 all-time against Minnesota during the regular season, while Wheeler is 15-13-2.
Road Start
For the first time since 2015, the Jets start the regular season on the road, as they begin the 2018-19 campaign at Enterprise Center in St. Louis against the Blues on Oct. 4 and follow up with their second game in Dallas against the Stars on Oct. 6…However, Winnipeg plays the bulk of their October schedule at Bell MTS Place, as the team has seven of their first 10 games at home…The Jets have a season-high six-game homestand from Oct. 14-24.
Pre-Season Sked
The Jets are in the midst of six games in eight days, including three back-to-back sets…Winnipeg plays their usual pre-season counterparts twice each – Minnesota, Calgary, and Edmonton – and host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday in their lone pre-season game against an Eastern Conference opponent.
Finland on the Horizon
While the Jets don’t play a neutral site game during the pre-season, Winnipeg does have a pair of neutral site games on its regular season schedule, as the Jets are scheduled to play the Florida Panthers in Helsinki, Finland on Nov. 1 and 2.