Tonight at 9 p.m. ET, the Anaheim Ducks and Winnipeg Jets skate against each other in Game 3 of their Western Conference Round 1 best-of-seven series live from the MTS Centre in Winnipeg as part of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Anaheim looks to take a commanding 3-0 series lead while Winnipeg hopes that a return home will provide the spark it needs to jump into the series.
The Ducks took care of home ice in the first two games, winning Game 1 by a 4-2 score and following it up with a Game 2 victory to the tune of a 2-1 final.
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Though the Ducks are up 2-0, they're only halfway to their ultimate goal of winning the series and the team expects a hostile environment to greet it.
"We'll talk about it a little bit, but it's not like we don't know what's coming," coach Bruce Boudreau told the Ducks website Sunday. "I don't think we'll ever underestimate how loud it's going to be, and how the city of Winnipeg itself is going to be. It'll be pretty wild."
This will mark the first postseason game in Winnipeg since the previous Jets team made the tournament in 1996, its last year before moving to Arizona and becoming the Coyotes. It also marks this Jets team's first trip to the postseason since they advanced as the Atlanta Thrashers in 2007.
With it being nearly two decades since Winnipeg hosted a playoff game, the Jets expect a huge boost in support from the crowd after making the tournament for the first time since the franchise was brought to Canada in 2011.
"There have been a number of games where we didn't have anything in the tank, and our crowd drove us through games to pretty big wins," Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice told the Jets website Sunday. "We lean on our crowd an awful lot."
Of course, the fans can only do so much and it's the Jets that need to tighten up and protect leads after heading into the third period with leads in Games 1 and 2 only to blow it.
The Jets led 2-1 in Game 1 heading into the final frame and allowed the Ducks to score three unanswered goals at the Honda Center.
In Game 2, Adam Pardy put Winnipeg on the board first and it stood as the only tally of the match heading into the third period, but Patrick Maroon scored on the power play to draw Anaheim even.
Jakob Silfverberg then stunned the Jets, finding the back of the net with less than a minute left in regulation to win the game. Captain Ryan Getzlaf picked up his third assist of the series in the game.
Ondrej Pavelec will once again man the blue paint for Winnipeg in Game 3 after allowing six goals on 72 shots through the first two contests.
Anaheim counters with Frederik Andersen between the pipes and he has yielded three goals while turning aside 53 chances.
The Ducks look to put a stranglehold on the best-of-seven series while the Jets look for their first win when the Stanley Cup playoffs return to Winnipeg for the first time in 19 years live tonight from the MTS Centre.
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