The Winnipeg Jets stretched their winning streak to a record nine games after a two-week layoff by defeating the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday night at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Eric Comrie got the win for the Jets. It was the first shootout of the season for the Jets. Captain Adam Lowry made his return to the line-up after an 8-game absence. Connor Hellebuyck got the night off after playing 3 games for the American team that fell in overtime to Team Canada on Thursday night. Josh Morrissey who did not suit up for Team Canada in the Championship game due to illness, also got the night off. After being a healthy scratch for the American team in the Championship game, Kyle Connor was back in his top line role for the Jets.

First Period:

The Jets opened the scoring at the 5-minute mark of the period when Nikolaj Ehlers buried a Cole Perfetti feed on a 2 on 1 to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. Then, with about 4 minutes left in the period, the Blues tied the game when Robert Thomas scored on an odd man rush to tie the game at 1 heading into the 1st intermission.

Second Period:

The only goal in the second period came off the stick of Gabe Vilardi when he took a pass from Mark Scheifele and fired the puck five-hole on Joel Hofer to restore the Jets lead to 2-1. The goal came just after the half-way mark of the period.

Third Period:

The final period was action packed. The Blues tied the game once again just 16 seconds into the period when Thomas scored a wraparound goal on an off balance Comrie. It was Thomas’ second goal of the night. After the Blues tied the game, the Jets had several chances to take the lead but could not produce the go-ahead goal. Next, with just over 4 minutes left in regulation, Neal Pionk took two penalties on the same play when he broke his stick and tried to prevent Jake Neighbours from scoring on a partial breakaway. Pavel Buchnevich scored on the 1st PP to give the Blues a 3-2 lead with under 3 minutes left in regulation and another PP to work with. With under a minute left in regulation, once the Jets killed Pionk’s second penalty and with Comrie on the bench for the extra attacker, Vilardi tipped in a point shot to tie the game for the Jets with 28 seconds left in regulation. It was Vilardi’s second goal of the night and 25th on the year which sent the game to overtime.

Overtime and Shootout:

Despite quality chances for both teams, the game remained tied after 5 minutes of 3 on 3 overtime action. Connor scored the lone shootout goal to give the Jets the 4-3 victory.

Some takeaways from the game:

After being a healthy scratch in the Canada-USA championship game, you could tell Connor was motivated in this game. In addition to the shootout winner, he had a whopping 10 shots on goal and several quality scoring chances.

After a lengthy losing streak, Comrie now has consecutive wins. He has played well this season despite not getting the end results.


Prior to the game, Vlad Namestnikov, who was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, signed a two year extension to continue his time in Winnipeg. Congrats to him.

The Jets have now won a record 9 consecutive games. They will look to make it 10 in a row when they return to the Canada Life Centre Monday night to host the San Jose Sharks. They should also get Morrissey and Hellebuyck back for this game.

Thanks for reading. Go Jets Go!

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