New York. It wasn’t hot on the ice last night when Winnipeg earned its last open playoff spot in the West with a win over Minnesota.
Even the coaches were angry!
– They do cheap things, exasperated Dean Evason from Minnesota.
Yes, the fight for tickets to the Western Conference playoffs is over. The Winnipeg Jets beat Minnesota 3-1 last night and it’s done — meaning even the Nashville Predators, the last team to pose a threat to the Jets, can pack their bags for the summer.
But the Xcel Energy Center’s combat will be remembered most for the fact that emotions ran wild – especially towards the end of a match.
Among other things, Jets defender Neil Bionic received a penalty for injuring Swede Marcus Johansson with a brutal cross, and then even the coaches were furious.
Dean Evason of Minnesota appeared to challenge fellow Jets’ Rich Bowness to a fight and then they both stood in each other’s booths and gassed each other for a while.
They do cheap stuff. If they want to fight, that’s fine. Do it next. But I don’t understand ugly things. What’s that supposed to be good for him, Evason roars afterward.
Bowness—himself upset about Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman hitting his Danish star Nikolai Eilers earlier in the third period—just shrugged.
– we are Family. He says if you give up on one of us, you give up on all of us.
One of the home runs was assisted by Kevin Stenlund – the only home run scored by Kirill Kaprizov was assisted by both John Klingberg and Markus Johansson.