For a second season in a row, the Minnesota Wild were whipped in the first round of the playoffs and sent packing in just five games.
Last year it was St. Louis crushing the Wild with a hot goalie, Jake Allen. This year, Connor Hellebuyck was the hot goalie plugging the pipes for the Winnipeg Jets, who humiliated Minnesota 5-0 in the series clincher Friday night.
Winnipeg scored 31 seconds into the game, made it 2-0 at the 5:42 mark and then piled on with two goals in a 49-second stretch to take a 4-0 lead just a little more than halfway through the opening period.
Devan Dubnyk was pulled from the Minnesota goal just 11:59 into the game.
It was a cakewalk for Winnipeg, whose fans spent most of the third period doing the wave and singing “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye.”
When fans got bored with the Bananarama hit, they advanced to a “book your tee time” chant and then a “start the bus” chant.
It wasn’t supposed to be so easy for Winnipeg. They were down three of their top six defensemen, but even on the rare occasion that Minnesota had a solid scoring chance, Hellebuyck was between the pipes ready to make the save.
Minnesota ended the playoffs on streak of 141 minutes and 37 seconds without a goal, dating back to the second period of Game 3.
