‘Absolutely amazing’ Jets advance with comeback for the ages

Incredible. Magical. Historical. Describe it however you want. A comeback for the ages has the Winnipeg Jets moving on to the second round.

Captain Adam Lowry deflected a point shot from Neal Pionk with just under four minutes left in double overtime Sunday night to send a Whiteout-clad Canada Life Centre into complete pandemonium and the stunned St. Louis Blues into the offseason in heartbreaking fashion.

“Amazing. Absolutely amazing,” said Scott Arniel, the former Jets 1.0 player who is in his first year as head coach of the 2.0 club. “I’ve seen a lot of hockey games, I’ve been around a lot of hockey games. That was, to be a part of that, was one of the most exciting games I’ve ever been a part of. Man, it was thrilling.”

The 4-3 victory after officially 96 minutes and 10 seconds of action — the third-longest Game 7 in NHL history — capped off an epic series that saved the best for last.

“It’s incredibly special. I probably dreamed it was a little nicer than just going off my leg, but it’s one of those things, on the outdoor rink, in the driveway, you dream about being the hero in a Game 7 and giving yourself a chance to continue chasing a Stanley Cup,” said Lowry. “To do it in Winnipeg at home — we have such tremendous fans, such tremendous support, just really happy we get to continue playing in front of them.”

Winnipeg now moves on to face the Dallas Stars in the second round. That best-of-seven starts Wednesday at the downtown rink.

THE COMEBACK

This was an event that will be talked about around here for generations. The Jets — who captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season squad — were mere seconds away from a heartbreaking first-round elimination and only forced sudden death when Cole Perfetti tied the game at 19:57 of the third period.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s kind of what you dream of,” said Perfetti, who had a terrific overall series as he continues to show major development.  “Playing in a Game 7. First time ever doing that, it was awesome playing in front of this crowd. It was incredible tonight.”

The play that led to it was quite something. Nikolaj Ehlers whiffed on the puck before getting it over to Kyle Connor, who also seemed to fan on it before it made its way to Perfetti, who buried his second of the night and the biggest of his life.

“It just shows there’s no quit in this team,” said Ehlers, who missed the first five games of the series with a lower-body injury.

“It just shows there’s no quit in this team.”– Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers

Perfetti’s goal would have been a mere footnote if not for the fact Vlad Namestnikov – who had assumed the top centre spot in the absence of the injured Mark Scheifele — brought the home team to within a goal at 18:04 of the final frame. You have to be good to be lucky, and that goal had some fortune behind it. With Connor Hellebuyck pulled for an extra attacker and the clock ticking to below two minutes, Namestnikov did something that’s never a bad idea and shot the puck towards the net.

It struck veteran Blues defenceman Ryan Suter just enough to change direction and fool goaltender Jordan Binnington.

The Jets had a pulse.

Winnipeg thought they’d tied it with 66 seconds left in the third as Perfetti’s shot was stopped by Binnington who was perilously close to his own goal line. Officials reviewed the play for several minutes before confirming there was no goal.

No matter. Perfetti made sure his next one counted as he barely beat the final buzzer.

“Joy,” said Ehlers of the feeling that followed.  “There was belief in this group. Nobody hung their heads. We looked at each other and said, ‘We’re not done playing hockey yet.’”

They certainly are not.

“An awesome effort from everybody,” said Arniel.

THE D COME THROUGH

Not only were they down two goals after one period, but the Jets were also without top defenceman Josh Morrissey who suffered an upper-body injury shortly after absorbing a heavy check from Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist.

Morrissey tried to play one more shift, even throwing a check of his own, which left him grimacing, but was done for the night. There was no immediate post-game update abou this status.

That left the Jets with just five healthy defencemen for what turned into a marathon, must-win game.

“To play this long of a game with five defencemen is pretty incredible so hats off to those guys,” said Ehlers. “They stuck with it, they battled. Us forwards we tried to help out as much as possible with getting pucks out of our zone so they could get some quick changes. They stuck with it, battled their asses off and stepped up.”

Some of the final ice times are wild.

Pionk played 46:15 while defence partner Dylan Samberg was right behind at 44:00. Dylan DeMelo (36:40), Haydn Fleury (33:02) and Luke Schenn (27:49) also put up herculean efforts.

“What a yeomen’s effort by our defense. All five of those guys, they had a different partner every shift because of the rotation and just having to, not only defend but they had to be a part of our offense,” said Arniel.

The fact the Jets won this game without Morrissey and without top centre Scheifele — missing a second straight game due to an upper-body injury — only adds to the legendary status of this one.

“To be able to come back in the third period like we did and battle our asses off in overtime, it’s really special. And we did it as a group,” said Ehlers.

THE MVP STANDS TALL

The night began as all four home playoff games did — with the crowd loudly chanting “MVP” as Hellebuyck’s name was introduced.

You could tell it meant a lot to him, especially as the series wore on and he was clearly fighting a battle between the ears as a result in getting pulled from all three road games against the Blues, in which he gave up 16 combined goals.

Hellebuyck’s night didn’t start out well. He gave up a goal on the first shot of the night, getting caught swimming outside his crease as Jordan Kyrou poked home a loose puck just 70 seconds into the game.

You could almost feel the air coming out of the downtown rink.

Mathieu Joseph made it 2-0 at 7:16 of the first and the Jets, quite frankly, looked dead in the water.

“We were extremely nervous to start the game, got down quickly,” said Arniel.

Perfetti cut the deficit in half midway through the second on the power play, with a perfect deflection of a Connor shot, but then Hellebuyck gave up another questionable tally with just 35 seconds left in the second, this time off a Radek Faksa wrister.

Were the Jets about to fall in the first round for a third straight season?

“It was kind of us on our heels and that was the message from our leaders, the message from me, ‘Let’s go here, let’s get up on our toes, let’s get into attack mode,’” said Arniel. “We’re no good sitting back. that’s not us and we just did a great job of turning the tide and getting back to playing the way we can.”

Give Hellebuyck some major credit. He settled in from that point on, stopping everything that came his way including multiple huge ones in overtime and double overtime. Winnipeg was largely carrying the play from the third period on so Hellebuyck had to go through long stints of inaction, but he stood tall when needed and finished with 26 saves on 29 shots.

He was far from his best this series. But he came up big when he needed to. And you know this was an extra-sweet victory over Binnington — whose Team Canada had beaten Hellebuyck’s Team USA squad in overtime during the 4-Nations Face-Off Final.

Binnington certainly can’t be faulted, as he stopped 43 of 47 shots that came his way.

KEY PLAY

Lowry’s game-winning goal will be replayed for years.

THREE STARS

1. WPG F Cole Perfetti: 2 goals

2. WPG D Neal Pionk: 3 assists, team-high 46:15 of ice time

3. STL Jordan Binnington: 43 saves

NEXT UP

Here’s the second-round schedule:

GAME 1: May 7: Dallas at Winnipeg. 8:30 p.m.

GAME 2: May 9: Dallas at Winnipeg. 8:30 p.m.

GAME 3: May 11: Winnipeg at Dallas. 3:30 p.m.

GAME 4: May 13: Winnipeg at Dallas. 7 p.m.

GAME 5: May 15: Dallas at Winnipeg. TBD (if necessary)

GAME 6: May 17: Winnipeg at Dallas. TBD (if necessary)

GAME 7: May 19: Dallas at Winnipeg. TBD (if necessary)

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg