Three things - Tough second period in St. Paul

The Winnipeg Jets looked good in both the first and third periods in St. Paul tonight but it was the second that hurt them in an 8-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild. Cole Perfetti had a couple of points (1G 1A) in his preseason debut. Mason Appleton, Nikita Chibrikov, Brayden Yager and Morgan Barron scored the other goals for the Jets who are now 1-2-1 in the preseason. They will return to action next Wednesday at home against Calgary.

1. GREAT START FOR THE ROAD TEAM

The Jets sent a less experienced roster to St. Paul to give some of their younger players an opportunity to show their stuff. After giving up the games first goal, Cole Perfetti evened things halfway through the opening frame. The Jets were on the power play and Perfetti wristed a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury with the 22-year-old scoring in his preseason debut. Winnipeg outshot Minnesota 12-10 in the first.

2. WILD VETS TOOK OVER

The second period is where Minnesota really took over. Ben Jones scored shorthanded to make it 2-1 2:07 into the middle frame. 2:25 later, Mason Appleton batted a puck out of the air to even the game once again. But that’s as good as it would get, as the Wild would score six unanswered goals over a stretch of 14:56.

3. JETS DON'T ROLL OVER

As impressive as the Wild were in the second, the Jets did not just shut it down in the third. WInnipeg responded with three unaswered goals of their own as Nikita Chibrikov scored on the power play at 5:46, Brayden Yager at 17:24 and Morgan Barron at 18:26. It was nice to see two of the Jets top prospects Chibrikov and Yager helping with the offensive surge in the third and for the team as a whole to fight back.