The Montreal Canadiens left Tuesday night’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets stunned and rightfully so.
Montreal had a 4-0 lead late in the third period and as the clock was ticking down, they let Winnipeg back in it, as the Jets scored four goals in two minutes and six seconds to tie the game with 33 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime. Dylan Samberg was the hero for the Jets in the extra frame as his shot beat Canadiens goaltender Jacob Fowler to snap the Jets’ nine-game winless skid.
Canadiens winger Cole Caufield, who had two power-play goals in the contest, had few answers as to why his team collapsed.
“I guess (we) thought the game was over,” said Caufield. “We had a four-goal lead. There’s no excuse for this. It’s terrible.”
Head coach Martin St. Louis said with the way his team played, it was a deserved loss for the Canadiens.
“We were winning, but we weren’t outplaying them,” St. Louis said. “If you look at the game as a whole, forget the score, Winnipeg was the better team tonight.
“How the whole thing happened, that’s hard to explain. I’ve never been part of anything like that.”
It was the fastest four goals the Jets have scored in franchise history, besting the previous mark of scoring four in 2:16 on Nov. 9, 1984 against the Vancouver Canucks.
The momentum seemed to swing after the fight between Arber Xhekaj and Tyrel Bauer midway through the third period and was accented by Florian Xhekaj taking on Jets captain Adam Lowry. Xhekaj was given the extra two minutes for roughing as both were handed five-minute penalties for fighting.
It was Bauer who started the comeback with a goal that beat Fowler, who had been playing a strong game, before Morgan Barron snapped home the Jets’ second one less than a minute later.
Kyle Connor scored two shots from the circle uncovered 27 seconds apart, including the tying goal on the power play with Alexandre Carrier sitting in the box for tripping.
“What a way to end the streak we were on there, and it seemed like it was coming,” Connor said postgame. “I think we just came into today with such a good attitude and tried to live in the present and just manufacture some kind of positivity and jump even if it wasn’t there.”
The Canadiens will look to bounce back on Thursday against the Utah Mammoth, while the Jets return home to host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.