Wild vs. Jets 2015 Second Round

Lore & Background

The 2014-15 Wild were a team that had finally found its rhythm. Behind Niklas Bäckström in net and a forward group led by Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, and Zach Parise, they posted one of the best regular seasons in franchise history and entered the postseason as a genuine contender. The Jets, still rebuilding after their 2011-12 return to the NHL, had clawed their way into the playoffs and carried a chip on their collective shoulder: they were the new team, the one everyone expected to be pushed around. That underdog energy made the series feel less like a bracket line and more like a territorial dispute.

The seven games traded blows. Bäckström made the saves that kept Minnesota alive in the early rounds, while the Jets' young core—Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, and a defensive group that played with desperate urgency—kept the series honest. The back-and-forth nature of the scoring, the physicality in the corners, the way both benches leaned in during line changes: it had the texture of a rivalry being forged in real time. Game 7, played in front of a raucous Minneapolis crowd, delivered the kind of finish that fans still recount at kitchen tables years later.

The loss stung in Winnipeg, but it also planted a seed. Every subsequent regular-season meeting between the two clubs carried the subtext of that 2015 series: the Wild as the established force, the Jets as the hungry challengers who remembered exactly how close they had come. That narrative engine kept the Central Division one of the most emotionally charged in the NHL for years after.

In Their Own Story

The ice at Xcel Energy Center was still cold from the warmup when the arena lights dimmed for Game 7. You could feel the vibration through the boards before the puck even dropped—thousands of fans in the upper deck, a sea of wild green and white, the bass of the crowd a low hum that made the glass rattle. Bäckström stood in his crease, stick dragging a thin line in the fresh ice, eyes locked on the opposite net. Across the rink, the Jets' captain set the puck for faceoff, jaw tight, knowing that one more loss and another year of waiting would begin again. The horn blared. The crowd roared. And for forty minutes, two prairie cities held their breath together.

Reader's Guide

Minnesota and Winnipeg. Two cities stitched together by the same flat horizon, the same long winters, the same stubborn pride. The Wild and the Jets share a geography that makes every shift feel personal—this isn't a rivalry across a continent; it's a rivalry across the lake, across the border of state and province, across the line between 'us' and 'them' that prairie kids draw before they can skate.

Their first playoff meeting came in the 2015 second round, and it went the full seven games. The Wild took it 4-3, with Niklas Bäckström anchoring the net and Mikko Koivu carrying the captain's weight in the late rounds. The series ran through late April and into early May, splitting games between Xcel Energy Center and the MTS Centre, and the physical toll was visible by the final night.

What both fanbases say about the other is telling. In Minneapolis, the refrain is: 'They're still figuring it out.' In Winnipeg, the answer is: 'They'll never know what it's like to be the new kid in the room.' Both are wrong. Both are right. And that's exactly why the next meeting always feels like the first one all over again.

Walk into a sold-out Xcel Energy Center on a playoff night and you'll hear it in the chant, in the way the crowd sways as one body. The heat is real. The stakes are real. And the prairie doesn't forgive.

Did You Know?

• The 2015 series was the first postseason meeting in the history of the Wild-Jets rivalry, making every subsequent playoff clash a sequel to this one.
• Niklas Bäckström, the Swedish goaltender, was the backbone of the Wild's 2014-15 run and played a pivotal role in keeping the series alive through seven games.
• The Jets had only returned to the NHL in 2011-12, meaning their 2015 playoff appearance was among the earliest in their modern era—making the loss feel especially raw.
• The Wild's 2014-15 season ultimately ended with a Conference Finals exit to the Los Angeles Kings, making the seven-game win over Winnipeg the high-water mark of that run.