With family on hand, even after his dad's knee surgery, Tucker Poolman helps Jets win series

WINNIPEG -- Mark Poolman had knee surgery on Friday morning.

He drove up to Winnipeg on Friday afternoon.

And he was in the raucous Bell MTS Place on Friday night, watching his son, Tucker, help the Winnipeg Jets romp the Minnesota Wild 5-0 and win the city’s first NHL playoff series in 31 years.

“He told me that he wasn’t going to miss it,” said Tucker, a former East Grand Forks and UND star defenseman. “He’s probably still got some anesthesia in him, not knowing quite what’s going on.”

If Mark was a bit loopy, nobody would have noticed in downtown Winnipeg. The whole town was a bit loopy Friday.

An already riled-up whiteout crowd exploded to celebrate four goals in the first 12 minutes of the game, then reel off chant after chant as the game was well in hand.

First, it was: “Hey, hey, hey, goodbye.”

Then, it was: “We want Nashville.”

Then, it was: “Book your tee times.”

And finally, it was: “Start the bus.”

“It was a pretty exciting game,” Poolman said. “The first period was pretty wild. The building was rocking and everything seemed like it was going in the net, so it was fun.

“You can draw similarities to The Ralph, when it was going in big games back in college. It’s a similar feeling, for sure.”

After being a scratch for the first three games of the series, Poolman drew in for an injured Tyler Myers in Game 4 and for a suspended Josh Morrissey in Game 5.

The Jets didn’t allow a goal in either game that Poolman was in the lineup.

The Senior High graduate played 12:19 in Game 5, and was especially effective in the first period. He forced two neutral zone turnovers that led to scoring chances.

Poolman finished the game with a plus-one rating.

This week was the latest chapter to Poolman’s remarkable story.

Six years ago, he graduated from Senior High with zero college offers, zero United States Hockey League offers, struggling to find a junior hockey team to take him.

But after landing in Wichita Falls, Texas, in the North American Hockey League, he started his rapid ascent that went through Omaha (USHL), UND and now to Winnipeg, playing on the biggest stage of them all.

Nobody in his family was going to miss Friday night’s moment. Not even for knee surgery.

“It’s awesome to be close to home like this,” Poolman said, “so I can share this with them.”