For almost the entire night, Montreal had Winnipeg right where it wanted it. Jacob Fowler was swallowing up chances, the Canadiens were up 4-0, and the Jets looked headed for another frustrating loss.
Then the game flipped on its head.
Winnipeg ripped off four goals in the final minutes of regulation and finished the job in overtime, stunning the Canadiens 5-4 at the Bell Centre. Dylan Samberg scored the winner with 1:30 left in overtime, capping a comeback that snapped the Jets’ nine-game winless streak. Kyle Connor scored twice, Tyrell Bauer added his first NHL goal, and Morgan Barron had the other goal for Winnipeg, which won for the first time since October 13.
“Yeah, we’re gonna enjoy this one. You got to enjoy the wins in the National Hockey League, especially when you’re on a streak like that. And we’re gonna try to use this to catapult us and to build upon it,” said Connor.
“And I thought we scored all those goals. But right from the puck drop, I thought we were really dialed in.”
Montreal set the tone early, forcing Stuart Skinner into a couple of saves before breaking through at 3:05. Owen Beck had room to walk in and beat Skinner with a shot over the glove, giving the Canadiens the first goal for the 12th time in 16 games this season against Winnipeg.
The Jets did respond with a strong stretch of play and generated quality looks, but Fowler kept them out. He came up with several sharp stops as Winnipeg tried to push back, and Montreal made the most of its chances at the other end. At 18:18, Josh Anderson cut through the slot and slipped a backhand past Skinner to make it 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
The second period brought more trouble for Winnipeg. Back-to-back penalties handed Montreal a 1:15 two-man advantage, and the Canadiens cashed in at the four-minute mark.
Cole Caufield buried a Noah Dobson rebound for his first career goal against Winnipeg, stretching the lead to 3-0. It was also another ugly mark for the Jets, who have now allowed 10 power-play goals over their last five games.
Even then, Winnipeg kept pressing. The Jets poured 19 shots on Fowler in the second period, their highest single-period total of the season, but the 21-year-old goalie stopped every one of them.
Montreal pushed the margin to 4-0 just 46 seconds into the third when Caufield caught Skinner cheating away from the near post and snapped a shot under the crossbar for his second power-play goal of the night.
That should have been enough. It wasn’t.
The Canadiens’ trouble closing out games showed up again, and Winnipeg kept coming. Cole Perfetti had a golden chance on the power play late in the third, staring at a wide-open net, but his shot hit the post and somehow landed in Fowler’s glove.
The real damage came in a burst over the final three minutes. Bauer scored at 17:21 to get Winnipeg on the board, then Barron followed with a slick finish at 18:03 to make it 4-2. Bauer also picked up the assist on Barron’s goal, finishing with a goal, an assist and a fight for the Gordie Howe hat trick.
From there, the Jets kept the pressure on and completed the comeback in overtime, turning what looked like a Montreal runaway into one of the wildest finishes of the season.
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