~Tritt herein~ » Captain Blake Wheeler wasn’t certain at the beginning

WINNIPEG Authentic Erik Karlsson Jersey Kids , Manitoba (AP) Captain Blake Wheeler wasn’t certain at the beginning of the season if his Winnipeg Jets would contend for a playoff spot. Now he has his answer.Mark Scheifele scored the only goal in a shootout and the Winnipeg Jets clinched a playoff spot with a 5-4 win over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.The Jets are in the postseason for the first time since 2014-15 and just the second time since their move from Atlanta before the 2011-12 season. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since 2007.”A lot of uncertainty coming into the year, where we were going to be,” said Wheeler, who has been with Winnipeg since the relocation. ”I don’t think many people thought we were going to be where we are at, a playoff team. Every single guy in here has had a huge part in that. It’s a big moment for our team and for our organization.”Jets rookie Kyle Connor scored a power-play goal and had two assists, giving him seven goals in six games. That includes a pair of overtime goals in Winnipeg’s previous two games and gives him 29 on the season. That’s tied with Vancouver’s Brock Boeser for the rookie goal scoring lead. Boeser’s season ended March 5 with a fracture in his lower back.”He’s one of the single biggest reasons why we are where we are,” Wheeler said. ”(Connor has) put up nearly 30 goals and is a real impact player playing with Mark Scheifele and I. It’s quite a surprise.”Dustin Byfuglien also scored on the power play, and Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler each added a goal and an assist for Winnipeg.Kyle Turris Jean-Gabriel Pageau Jersey , Ryan Ellis, and Viktor Arvidsson each had a goal and an assist, and Roman Josi also scored for the Predators.Nashville backup Juuse Saros stopped 43 shots while the defending Western Conference champions rested their Vezina Trophy candidate Pekka Rinne after playing the night before in Minnesota.Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves for the Jets, improving to 39-11-0.The clubs have combined for 41 goals in five meetings this season.”There’s a lot of people shooting the puck out there. They got a lot of talent on their team,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”Our guys do a pretty good job scoring goals. I can’t explain it. Both teams have good goaltending. Both teams played pretty good defense, but offense seems to rule the day.”The Predators went 1 for 5 on the power play. Turris’s 14th put the Predators up 2-0 with less than one second remaining in the first period. The Jets’ two goals with the man advantage put their power play at 2 for 5.”I think playoffs are a lot different, to be honest with you,” said Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm when asked about potentially meeting the Jets in the postseason.”It’s most likely going to be the same players Mark Stone Jersey , so I wouldn’t expect anything much different. But playoffs are playoffs. I know on our part, we’re going to tighten up defensively, for sure.”NOTES: The Jets trail the Predators by five points for first in the Central Division with seven games remaining in the regular season.UP NEXTPredators: Start a three-game homestand against Minnesota on Tuesday night.Jets: Complete a six-game homestand against Boston on Tuesday night.— ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A goaltender who was winless in his previous 21 decisions outplayed an All-Star down the stretch Friday night.Cory Schneider got his first win in nearly 14 months when Nico Hischier scored 3:19 into overtime, lifting the New Jersey Devils to a wild 5-4 victory over the slumping Minnesota Wild.Hischier, Marcus Johansson and Kyle Palmieri each had a goal and an assist for the Devils, who won for the second time in eight games. Will Butcher and Ben Lovejoy also scored.“We’ve talked a lot about when things aren’t going well and adversity strikes it’s up to the way we care about each other and tonight showed that,” Palmieri said. “It was our culture coming out and believing in each other.”Schneider had 15 saves in relief of Keith Kinkaid Youth Matt Duchene Jersey , including three in overtime. He allowed five goals Thursday in Chicago and was 0-17-4 since his last win on Dec. 27, 2017.“Sometimes things happen in a strange way, but I was more excited for our team just to show some mettle and to come back and win a tough game after a tough trip,” Schneider said. “It was nice to see us get rewarded as a group. For anybody who knows me, I’m not overly emotional one way or another. I think everyone else was more excited about it than I was.”In overtime, Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk’s errant pass behind the net was picked off by Palmieri. Dubnyk made a save before Hischier whacked in a loose puck to complete an improbable comeback.Dubnyk, who played in his third All-Star game last month, has allowed 10 goals in the last two games Mike Condon Jersey , both losses that included Minnesota blowing a multi-goal lead.“They’re finding their way in. It’s frustrating,” he said. “We probably deserved four points out of the last two games and we only got one. Got to find a way.”Coach Bruce Boudreau was non-committal when asked if Dubnyk will start Sunday against St. Louis.“It’ll be a conversation that the coaches and the goalie coach have tomorrow and the GM and we’ll see what transpires,” Boudreau said. “There’s a couple things. We’re not blind. We saw how they went in, but the other thing that bothers me is we do this all the time, we get them down and you don’t get that killer instinct and you stop playing and you try to defend all the time and it’s a losing way to play.”Playing for the third time in four nights, New Jersey trailed 4-1 late in the second period before Butcher scored off a deflected pass. Palmieri added a power-play goal midway through the third.Lovejoy scored with 2:45 left in regulation when he beat Dubnyk with a low slap shot from the left circle.Mikael Granlund and Brad Hunt each had a goal and assist for Minnesota, which dropped to 1-4-3 in its past eight games. Joel Eriksson Ek and Nick Seeler also scored, and Ryan Suter had two assists.The Wild are clinging to the final playoff wild card in the jumbled Western Conference.Hunt scored a power-play goal and Eriksson Ek turned a gaffe by Kinkaid behind his net into an easy wraparound for a 2-0 lead midway through the first.Johansson converted a one-timer 26 seconds into the second before Seeler and Granlund scored to increase Minnesota’s lead to 4-1 and end Kinkaid’s night with 13 saves.NOTES: New Jersey is 2-18-2 when trailing after the first period. … The Devils placed C Blake Coleman (upper body) on injured reserve and activated LW Miles Wood off IR. Coleman has 18 goals Ryan Dzingel Jersey , second-best on the team. … Play was stopped in the first period when, prior to a TV timeout, the Wild ice crew opened the Zamboni door thinking Dubnyk held onto the puck after a save during a New Jersey forecheck.UP NEXTDevils: Open a three-game homestand Sunday against Buffalo.Wild: Host St. Louis on Sunday.