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The Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets were the second teams to start and the first to finish on Tuesday, as the Jets pulled ahead to a 3-1 lead in the series after a 2-0 win. A controversial no-call was capitalized upon by the Jets shortly after, and Connor Hellebuyck had a 30-save shutout for Winnipeg. They would need every one, as it was 1-0 until an empty-netter towards the end of regulation for the Jets made it 2-0 and made the lead insurmountable for Minnesota.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey got away with an egregious cross-check to the head of Eric Staal during Game 4 in Minnesota on Tuesday. However, Morrissey might want to keep his phone nearby after the game because there's a chance the league's Department of Player Safety could be calling. That's a bad, dirty check that may land him a suspension.
The Jets would capitalize on that no-call, taking a 1-0 lead off a goal from Mark Scheifele on a slick pass from Kyle Connor. Wild goalie Devin Dubnyk never saw the shot coming due to a ruckus in front of the net. Despite desperate pleas from the Wild faithful for Bruce Boudreau to challenge the goal, as they believed the Jets were offside, Boudreau let it ride and kept the challenge in his pocket.
After the game, Boudreau may have slightly overreacted to the no-call. While it was egregiously bad, to say that it cost the game for a Wild team that couldn't put one of its 30 shots in might be a bit of an overstatement. Yet that's exactly what Boudreau said, via TSN's Darren Dreger.
The Jets preserved the lead on a gorgeous save from Connor Hellebuyck, after the Wild's Mikael Granlund landed a cross to Mathew Dumba. It was the Wild's best chance to score in this game, but they weren't quite able to capitalize due to Hellebuyck's quick glove.
The 1-0 score would hold up until the end of the game, until Scheifele put the puck in an empty net for his second goal of the game, giving the Jets a 2-0 win. Hellebuyck picked up a stellar 30-save shutout. His first career postseason shutout comes just one game after he was pulled in Game 3, when he gave up six goals in 40 minutes of play. So to bounce back is a massive confidence booster for the 24-year-old goalie.
This game was huge for the Jets, who now take a commanding 3-1 lead on the series. They may find themselves without Morrissey for a few games after his antics early on, but the defensive show-out is huge for a team that had a difficult go in Game 3, and will now have an opportunity to close out this series at home in Game 5.
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