in the mountainside town of Naters Braydon Coburn Jersey , exactly one Swiss born-and-trained player had been in the NHL — for exactly one forgettable game.After Pauli Jaks tended goal for two periods in 1995, it took until 2001 for Reto Von Arx to become the first Swiss skater to make his NHL debut and many more years before the country had its first international hockey hero in Mark Streit.Switzerland sent goaltenders David Aebischer and Martin Gerber, Streit and fellow defensemen Yannick Weber and Roman Josi to the NHL as its population surpassed 8 million and more money went into developing the sport. Last year, Switzerland finally topped the charts when the New Jersey Devils made Hischier the first Swiss to go No. 1 in the NHL draft.He is the latest in a suddenly strong line of skilled Swiss forwards emerging as NHL stars.“It starts at a young age,” Hischier said. “There are some good coaches and some really good teams that you can develop (with). … They do a great job to be able to go practice and be able to do school. There’s special schools where you can do both. It’s all part of it.”Hischier is in the spotlight this weekend as he and the Devils return to his junior town of Bern, Switzerland, to practice and play an exhibition game before facing the Edmonton Oilers in Sweden to open the season. He is the poster boy for this generation of Swiss talent that includes Minnesota’s Nino Niederreiter, San Jose’s Timo Meier, Nashville’s Kevin Fiala and Vancouver’s Sven Baertschi.Those five players have already combined to play almost five times the number of games of all the Swiss forwards who came before them.“Swiss hockey’s been growing a lot over the years and we’ve been making steps,” Meier said. “Mark Streit and then Nino Niederreiter got drafted pretty high. That was the age where I was kind of realizing that’s where I want to be and that’s what I’m working for. Just kind of watching these guys work their way into the NHL was pretty exciting and made me want to be there some day.”Streit, who retired last year, understands his place in Switzerland’s hockey pantheon, right there with Aebischer and Gerber as pioneers. He’s proud of how Swiss hockey has finally earned some respect internationally.“Ten, 12, 15 years ago, nobody really talked about Swiss hockey J.T. Miller Jersey ,” Streit said. “Only a few, a handful, had been drafted. I think now, a few guys left a mark, so the teams know Swiss guys can play hockey.”Streit is still Switzerland’s standard-bearer in hockey after playing parts of 10 seasons for the Canadiens, Islanders, Flyers and Penguins, and winning the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2017. He was an inspiration to Josi, Weber, Devils defenseman Mirco Mueller and Capitals defensive prospect Jonas Siegenthaler.“Mark Streit was the first player, not goaltender, who made it in the NHL, and he showed a lot of people in Switzerland, including me and a lot of other guys, that it’s possible to make it with a lot of hard work,” said Josi Authentic Louis Domingue Jersey , who is now captain of the Predators. “He kind of opened the doors for us, and since then it’s more and more.”Hischier is opening the door for the next generation of players. Last summer, he skated with younger players and recalled that it felt weird to be admired. He realized he had a duty to help grow the sport back home and serve as a Streit-like inspiration.“There’s more hockey players who’s going to play hockey in Switzerland,” Hischier said this week. “They have a lot of young players. It’s just a good thing for our country.”It might take some time for another transcendent talent like Hischier to come along, but forward Valentin Nussbaumer is a top prospect for the 2019 draft and center Theo Rochette a top prospect in 2020. Not surprisingly, those players followed the path through the Canadian Hockey League junior ranks that worked so well for Niederreiter, Meier and Hischier.Streit notices the trend of more Swiss players playing in the CHL and how programs with combined schooling and hockey training have helped create better habits. But he attributes the breakthrough of so many talented Swiss forwards mostly to a more mature approach in the process of trying to make it in the NHL.“We were lacking a little bit of the perseverance — the hard work and perseverance,” Streit said. “I think now guys have that. They had a lot of skill back in the day, but guys came over and they just couldn’t really make their way through and establish themselves. I think now the guys are willing to work hard and suck it up even in the minors and go play in the CHL.”Niederreiter went to the Western Hockey League, while Meier and Hischier played for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to get used to North America and the smaller ice surface. Hischier didn’t look out of place at all as a rookie last season, putting up 20 goals and 32 assists and playing all 82 games as an 18-year-old.“I don’t think he gets the credit that he deserves for how good of a season he had and so far this season he looks even better,” Devils linemate Taylor Hall said. “Nico, he’s only played two seasons really in North America, so he’s still getting used to the amount of games we play and how much hockey we really have to go through. That’s why I really think the sky’s the limit for him and the more and more he plays over here on the small ice and just with the pace of play, he’s only going to get better and better.”With Nussbaumer, Rochette and others Swiss players taking their talents to North America at young ages and a pipeline developing http://www.officiallightningprostore.co … hev-jersey , Hischier won’t be the last Swiss likely to make a major impact in the NHL.“We’re such a small country, it’s actually crazy,” Siegenthaler said. “There’s more players going over to North America every year. It’s a good development for us. I think the next few years there should be even more players. I think it’s going pretty good for Switzerland so far.” WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Joel Eriksson Ek didn’t need a review or a challenge to know he scored the game-winning goal for Minnesota against Winnipeg.Eriksson Ek’s goal with 61 seconds left withstood both and the Wild rallied to beat the Jets 3-2 on Tuesday night.Jason Zucker and Eriksson Ek scored 26 seconds apart in the last two minutes of the third period as the Wild notched their fourth straight win.Zucker beat a screened Connor Hellebuyck at 18:33, and Eriksson Ek had his goal withstand a review and a goaltender interference challenge by Winnipeg at 18:59.“Yeah, it crossed the line and I knew it was in,” Eriksson Ek said of the loose puck. “It was nice it was not disallowed this time.”Brad Hunt had the other goal for Minnesota, and Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves for the Wild, who won all four games against Winnipeg this season.“They beat us four out of five last year when it counted so maybe it’s just how things work, but we’ve gotten lucky against them,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said.Patrik Laine had a goal and an assist and Mark Scheifele also scored for the Jets, who are 1-4-1 in their last six games.Hellebuyck stopped 37 shots for Winnipeg.“It’s obviously not a good finish,” Laine said. “That can’t happen. I think we played some good hockey until the tying goal. After that, we let it go for a bit, they scored two.”After a pre-game ceremony to induct Lars-Erik Sjoberg and the late Ab McDonald into the Jets’ Hall of Fame, Scheifele kept the fans cheering.Scheifele scored a power-play goal at 8:53 of the opening period for his first point in six games. Laine had the assist.Hunt scored on a high shot past a screened Hellebuyck Nikita Kucherov Jersey , tying the game at 11:50 of the second. But, 14 seconds later defenseman Ben Chiarot’s shot went off Laine for his 29th goal of the season.Laine stretched his point streak to four games (four goals, two assists). He has goals in his past three games, coinciding with him playing on a line with Scheifele and Blake Wheeler. Laine hadn’t scored in 15 games before the change.“They (Minnesota) didn’t have much at all,” Wheeler said. “It’s hard for us right now. We spend a lot of the game, not necessarily playing well, but doing enough to keep them kind of out of the danger zones and the wheels fall off at the end.”Wheeler and Kyle Connor each also recorded an assist, extending their point streaks to four games with five points apiece.Wild forward Ryan Donato, acquired in a trade with Boston on Feb. 20, had two assists. He has points in each of his first four games with his new team (one goal, five assists).Winnipeg played its first game without defenseman Josh Morrissey, who’s out until at least early April with an upper-body injury after being hit into the boards in last Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Arizona.NOTES: Winnipeg picked up two blue-liners in six trades Monday. Nathan Beaulieu took Morrissey’s spot with Jacob Trouba. Defenseman Bogdan Kiselevich didn’t arrive until late Tuesday afternoon. … Kevin Hayes, who was acquired from the New York Rangers, made his debut with the Jets. He played between left-winger Mathieu Perreault and Nikolaj Ehlers. Winnipeg also added forwards Matt Hendricks from the Minnesota Wild and Par Lindholm from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Both were scratched. … Kevin Fiala played his first game for Minnesota after being traded from Nashville. He lined up with center Luke Kunin and left-winger Zach Parise.UP NEXTWild: At Calgary on Saturday.Jets: Host Nashville on Friday.