Less than a day after Winnipeg’s Miracle in Montreal, the scale of what happened is still hard to process. The Jets stared down a four-goal hole late in the third period, clawed all the way back, and finished the job in overtime. It was the kind of comeback that snaps a nine-game losing streak in unforgettable fashion, and it came with the Canadiens carrying a 99.9999% chance of winning the game.
That finish instantly pushed Tuesday night into the conversation with the most outrageous regular-season games in Winnipeg Jets history since the NHL returned to the city in 2011. There have been plenty of nights that bent logic, flipped on a dime, or featured performances that seemed pulled from another sport entirely. This one belongs in that same company.
One of the earliest entries on that list came on October 27, 2011, when the Jets outlasted the Philadelphia Flyers 9-8. Winnipeg built leads of 5-1 and 6-2, then watched Philadelphia storm back to grab a 7-6 edge. The Jets answered to go back in front 8-7, the Flyers tied it again, and Andrew Ladd finally settled it with a little more than a minute left.
The comeback against Toronto on October 19, 2016, is another that still jumps off the page. Down 4-0 to Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs, Winnipeg somehow rallied to force overtime.
Patrik Laine finished his first NHL hat trick with the winner, and it came right after Matthews was denied on a breakaway. That one remains one of the signature games from the early years of the Jets’ return.
Then there was October 13, 2016, when the Jets opened their season by trailing the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 early in the third period. Patrik Laine scored his first NHL goal in the rally, Winnipeg tied it late in regulation, and Mark Scheifele finished the comeback in overtime.
The Jets also pulled off a different kind of escape on October 4, 2019, against the New Jersey Devils. Winnipeg was down 4-0 late in the second period before ripping off four straight goals to send the game to overtime. Blake Wheeler then completed the comeback in the shootout.
Montreal has been part of this story before, too. On March 1, 2022, the Jets jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 10 minutes, only to see the Canadiens answer with four unanswered goals to tie it.
Winnipeg didn’t fold. Instead, the Jets scored four more unanswered goals of their own and won 8-4.
Another third-period rescue came on March 2, 2024, when Winnipeg trailed the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 after 40 minutes. The Jets erupted for five unanswered goals in the third, scoring three times in the first six minutes to erase the deficit before Sean Monahan put them ahead.
The list also includes a shootout grind at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2018. The Rangers took a 3-0 lead into the third period, but Mark Scheifele, Jack Roslovic and Bryan Little all scored to force overtime before Winnipeg finished the job in the shootout.
And then there’s November 24, 2018, a game that stands apart for a different reason entirely. Winnipeg beat the St.
Louis Blues 8-4, but the headline was Patrik Laine’s five-goal night on five shots. He became the first player in Jets/Thrashers franchise history to do that, and it remains one of the most jaw-dropping individual performances the franchise has seen.
Against that backdrop, Tuesday night in Montreal fits right in with the most memorable regular-season games the Jets have played since returning to Winnipeg.
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Morgan Barron and Kyle Connor helped fuel the surge, with Connor striking twice as the Jets kept pressing and pressing. Winnipeg also owned the shot count by a wide margin, finishing with a 47-22 advantage, and the payoff was the kind of rally that can linger well beyond one night on the schedule. [Read more 🡒]
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The assignment is hardly a soft landing, with Edmonton coming in and Connor McDavid looming as the kind of opponent who can stress even the best goaltenders. For the Jets, who know Hellebuyck as well as anyone, it is another reminder of how much his presence can swing a game when the pressure rises and the matchup gets heavier. The real test at home is here, and it comes against one of the league's most dangerous players. [Read more 🡒]