Kyle Connor scored twice and Dylan Samberg buried the overtime winner as the Winnipeg Jets stormed back from four goals down late in the third period to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 and snap a nine-game losing streak Tuesday night.
Winnipeg (5-8-3) scored four goals in two minutes six seconds to tie the game with 32 seconds remaining in regulation, before Samberg beat Jacob Fowler at 3:30 in overtime. It was the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history.
Tyrel Bauer and Morgan Barron started the late rally to break Fowler’s shutout bid for the Jets, who were coming off a lopsided 7-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday that raised questions about Scott Arniel’s future as head coach.
Stuart Skinner made 18 saves, while Mark Scheifele and Dylan Demelo had two assists. Bauer and Barron also added helpers.
Cole Caufield scored twice, while Owen Beck and Josh Anderson also found the net as Montreal (9-3-3) lost for the first time in six games. Juraj Slafkovsky added two assists.
Fowler stopped 42 shots.
Bauer scored his first career goal with 2:39 remaining in regulation, and Barron tallied another 42 seconds later to cut the lead to 4-2. Connor then scored on a pair of one-timers with an extra attacker 27 seconds apart to tie the game.
A shot by Winnipeg’s Morgan Barron slips past Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacob Fowler with 1:57 left in the third period, narrowing the deficit to 4-2, and setting the stage for Kyle Connor’s two last-minute goals that sent the game into overtime. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
Beck had opened the scoring 3:05 into the game with his first goal of the season, beating Skinner glove-side with a wrist shot after Oliver Kapanen and Arber Xhekaj had their chances thwarted.
Anderson recovered his own dump-in before flicking a backhand shot into the top-right corner to double Montreal’s lead at 18:18 of the first period.
Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti takes a hit along the boards by Montreal’s Kaiden Guhle in the first period Tuesday night. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)
The Jets surrendered a 75-second, two-man advantage early in the second period after Elias Salomonsson and Barron took consecutive penalties for interference.
Caufield made them pay, burying a rebound into the open net after defenceman Noah Dobson uncorked a one-timer from the point to give Montreal a 3-0 lead four minutes into the period.
Caufield made it 4-0 with his 10th goal of the season 46 seconds into the third period, roofing a shot from a tight angle after Scheifele was called for tripping.
Canadiens: Nick Suzuki missed his sixth consecutive game with a hand injury. The Canadiens captain had played 546 straight regular-season games to begin his NHL career. He appears close to returning after practising without any obvious limitations Monday and Tuesday morning.
Jets: Winnipeg reunited its prolific top line of Scheifele, Connor and Gabriel Vilardi in search of a spark. The Jets piled on the shots and eventually broke Fowler late in the game.
Fowler had a few, including reaching back to rob Cole Perfetti’s backhand on the doorstep late in the third period. But Winnipeg’s comeback was definitely the story of the night.
On Beck’s opening goal, Arber and Florian Xhekaj became the first pair of brothers to record a point on the same Canadiens goal since Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn on Jan. 17, 2009. Both bruising brothers also fought late in the third period, much to the crowd’s delight.
Jets: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Canadiens: Host the Utah Mammoth on Thursday.
