Face-off: 1900 ET, 16/02/2022
Venue: Canada Life Centre
Minnesota’s only defeat in nine outings came in Winnipeg and the Wild will be looking to put the record straight at Canada Life Centre.
The visitors had won two previous meetings this season and are 15 points better off in the Central Division, with two games in hand.
We reckon 2.0 for an away win in regular time is a percentage pick in our Winnipeg Jets vs Minnesota Wild predictions.
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Winnipeg Jets Odds
Winnipeg boosted their hopes of securing a wild card spot during a useful 3-1-1 run which included that win against the Wild and victories over St Louis and Nashville.
However, Monday’s 3-1 home loss to Chicago was a setback and it will be interesting to see how Dave Lowry’s side reacts.
Mark Scheifele levelled the scores at 6:17 in the third period but the Blackhawks finished strongly.
Winnipeg won 62 per cent of the face-offs and outshot Chicago 32-24, but came up against a formidable foe in Marc-Andre Fleury.
Defenseman Nate Schmidt said: “I thought he made a couple of big saves, especially in the third period, but I think that we as a team needed to do a better job of getting to him.
“We shot pucks, but we didn’t really have the guys in front and we’re just making easy saves for him.”
The Jets are playing well enough to be competitive but we just feel Minnesota may have more of a cutting edge on this occasion.
Looking at the NHL odds, we’re going with an away victory by exactly two goals at 7.0.
Minnesota Wild Odds
Minnesota bounced back from last week’s loss here by beating Carolina 3-2 and then made it eight wins out of nine when seeing off Detroit 7-4.
Matt Boldy hit a hat-trick on Monday, Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist and Mats Zuccarello had three assists.
“It’s scary the depth that I think that we have,” said forward Jordan Greenway. “We can rely on everyone for different things, whether it’s getting on the scoresheet or locking down another line.
“That’s definitely a good feeling and it’s going to be good for us going down the stretch, for sure.”
This promises to be a tighter tussle, especially with Marcus Foligno returning from a two-game ban for fighting with Adam Lowry here.
Reflecting on that feisty affair, Greenway added: “We owe ’em, for sure, so they better be ready.”
Two in-form netminders in Cam Talbot and Connor Hellebuyck can also help to keep the score down in a scrappy contest.
Let’s add 3.4 for an away win and under 5.5 goals to our NHL predictions, along with 21.0 for a 3-1 scoreline.
Additional stats
Last result:
WINNIPEG 1-3 Chicago
MINNESOTA 7-4 Detroit
Head-to-head: Winnipeg 2-0 Minnesota, Minnesota 7-1 Winnipeg, Minnesota 6-5 Winnipeg
