The Winnipeg Jets mercifully finished off Minnesota Friday Night with a 5-0 home drubbing of the Wild to win their first playoff series since the franchise returned to the Canadian city.
The Jets jumped on the Wild early with Jacob Trouba scoring 31 seconds into the game while Bryan Little, Brandon Tanev and Joel Armia put the game out of reach for Minnesota with a 4-0 deficit at the end of the first. Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for his second shutout of the series while Mark Scheifele netted a goal in the third to add a little insult to injury for Winnipeg who’ll now face the winner of the Avalanche/Predators series in the second round.
At 31 seconds, Jacob Trouba scores the fastest goal to start a game in #NHLJets playoff history (version 1 or 2)
Previous record: 53 seconds by Randy Carlyle on Apr 25, 1985 vs Oilers
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) April 20, 2018
He's grabbing it all on his own and Brandon Tanev is putting the biscuit right in the net. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/harQb8yOAn
— NHL (@NHL) April 21, 2018
Friday night however for the Jets was just a continuation of their complete dominance over the Wild and a somewhat of a stunning trend among the majority of the first round match-ups in the West.
In total the Jets outscored the Wild 16-9 over the five games series but ran the Wild out of the building in the games they won with a goal differential of 14-3. But to further illustrate just how much of a mismatch this series actually was, Winnipeg controlled 59 percent of the series’ total shot attempts when five-on-five which was better than any of the other 15 teams currently playing in the NHL Playoffs according to SB Nation.
However Winnipeg wasn’t the only team enjoying a lopsided first round victory in the West, nor were they potentially the most surprising.
Las Vegas continued their remarkable 2017-81 expansion season run by disposing of the LA Kings in four games to move onto the second round. Meanwhile the Sharks apparently had an opponent in the Anaheim Ducks who looked more like District-Five than an NHL team as they bowed out to San Jose in four games as well.
In any sense, an incredibly interesting and potentially extremely competitive second round is in the making for the West.