By Canadian Press

Boudreau’s experiment with new line pays off as Wild beat Jets 4-2

Feb 7, 2017 | 7:00 PM

WINNIPEG — Bruce Boudreau wanted to experiment and try a new line for the Minnesota Wild. You could say it was a big success for the veteran coach.

The line of centre Charlie Coyle and wingers Jason Pominville and Nino Niederreiter accounted for all of the Wild’s goals in Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Pominville and Niederreiter scored twice, while Pominville added a pair of assists and Coyle picked up a career-high three assists. Niederreiter’s second goal was an empty-netter.

“Nothing in this team surprises me right now,” Boudreau said of the trio’s success for his NHL Western Conference-leading club. “I mean, it seems like there’s a different hero every night. Charlie’s a good player and he doesn’t get a lot of notice. Maybe it’s because we’re in Minnesota or whatever the reason, but he’s a good player and tonight he came to play and so did Niederreiter. Pominville got four points. I mean, those guys held us down.

“Other nights, it’s either the (Eric) Staal line or the (Mikko) Koivu line. Tonight it was that line.”

Devan Dubnyk made 38 saves for the Wild (35-12-5), who wrapped up a four-game road trip (3-1-0).

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Joel Armia had a goal and assist and Bryan Little netted his 15th goal of the season for Winnipeg (25-27-4). Goalie Ondrej Pavelec went to the dressing room just over six minutes into the second period after stopping 11 of the 14 shots he faced. The Jets announced he wasn’t returning because of a lower-body injury.

Connor Hellebuyck made 10 saves in relief for the Jets, who were starting a four-game homestand.

Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said he didn’t think Pavelec’s injury was serious, but he would be checked out. Maurice took the loss with an asterisk beside it.

“Winning is everything in pro sports, but you have to have an assessment of your game that’s honest,” Maurice said.

“Over our last five (games), that’s as well as we’ve played in a while against some pretty good teams. We played the best team in our conference and I think we were better. I think we were better than they were over the course of the game.”

Winnipeg had won three in a row, but now has two straight losses. It was its first loss at home against a Central Division opponent this season (6-1-0).

Minnesota forward Mikael Granlund’s franchise-record 12-game point streak ended. He had five goals and 12 assists during the span, which had been the NHL’s longest current point streak.

Granlund had a penalty shot early in the third, but tripped over Hellebuyck while trying to go to the backhand. He was awarded the shot after Jets defencemen Dustin Byfuglien pushed a loose stick on the ice toward him when he had the puck in Winnipeg’s end.

“That was something new I learned today,” Byfuglien said of causing the penalty shot. “I had no clue (about the rule).”

The Wild led 2-0 after the first period and 3-2 following the second.

Boudreau put Coyle on the wing for the third period, but not because of anything wrong he was doing. The coach said he just went with three lines.

“He looked good in both positions,” Pominville said of Coyle. “He’s a big part of the team. Nice that he got rewarded tonight.”

Coyle said it was a little different playing centre.

“But it felt good getting speed up the middle with Pominville and Niederreiter and we had some good chemistry early on,” Coyle said. “They were just simple plays that got to the net and they happened to go in and that made us feel good about ourselves.”

Notes – Earlier in the day, the Jets announced veteran defenceman Tyler Myers, who’s missed 44 games this season, including the past 39 with lower-body injuries, had surgery for a different lower-body injury Monday and is out an additional six to eight weeks.

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press