The Winnipeg Jets just pulled off the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history, and the nine-game losing streak they dragged into Bell Centre makes the whole stunt funnier before it makes it impressive.
Owen Beck opened the scoring just over three minutes in, and Josh Anderson made it 2-0 with under two minutes left in the first period. Cole Caufield added two power-play goals of his own, the second one landing just 46 seconds into the third period to make it 4-0. The Montreal Canadiens didn’t score again for the rest of regulation or in overtime.
A team that had won five straight games and sat at 9-3-3 simply quit defending the moment the game looked decided, and four different Jets made them pay for it, with Dylan Samberg burying the winner in overtime.
Tyrel Bauer got it started late, scoring his first NHL goal to make it 4-1 with 2:39 left on the clock. That single moment is the actual headline. The Jets’ rally technically began right there, 57 minutes and 21 seconds into the game, and it broke the previous record for latest four-goal comeback in NHL history, set by the Los Angeles Kings against Dallas back in 2007 at the 52-minute, 46-second mark with 7:14 remaining. Then it got worse for Montreal in a hurry.
Morgan Barron cut it to 4-2 with under two minutes left. Kyle Connor made it 4-3 with a minute remaining, then scored again twenty-seven seconds later on the power play to force overtime at 4-4. Two goals, one minute, one period that had looked over since the first intermission.
Dylan Samberg finished it 3:30 into overtime, assisted by captain Adam Lowry and Gabriel Vilardi, and Winnipeg walked out of Bell Centre with a 5-4 win that nobody in the building expected at the first intermission.
https://twitter.com/NHL/status/2117815670222246340
That clip is going to get replayed every time this comeback gets mentioned, and it should.
None of this works without context on the team doing the comebacking. These Jets entered the night having lost nine straight games, a stretch that included a 7-0 beatdown at the hands of Carolina two nights earlier. A team that bad doesn’t usually get the benefit of the doubt down 4-0 with 2:39 to play. Winnipeg got it anyway. Montreal just stopped playing defense once it got comfortable.
Caufield wasn’t shy about saying so afterward. “Guys thought the game was over. We had a four-goal lead. There’s no excuse for this. It’s terrible,” he said, and that’s about as blunt as a postgame quote gets.
Kyle Connor was asked if he believed through all of it. “Always,” he said.
This complicates the easy “Montreal is bad” read: the Canadiens had gone 448-0-1 all-time when leading by four or more goals entering the third period, with the only non-win in that spot a loss against the Minnesota North Stars back in 1984. Forty-two years between disasters, and the next one arrived without warning. It just needed a third period to start.
