Coming out of their mandatory five-game bye-week instilled by the NHL owners, as part of the last rounds of collective bargaining negotiations, the Winnipeg Jets faced the white-hot Calgary Flames, who had won eight straight coming into this one.
Facing Johnny Gaudreau and a streaking Mike Smith in the Flames net, the Jets out-shot and out-chanced the Flames on route to a 2-1 shootout victory. The Flames had seemingly scored a late third-period goal, but it was disallowed due to goaltender interference.
After T.J. Brodie had opened the scoring in the first period for the Flames, and Mathieu Perreault scored for the Jets in the second; period three and overtime solved nothing, so the teams went into the shootout where both Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler beat Smith for the win.
It is only the second victory after regulation time for the Jets, as they are 0-6 in overtime and 2-1 in the shootout.
With the win, the Jets return to the top of the Central division at least for the time being, as the Nashville Predators are just one point behind Winnipeg. The St. Louis Blues are also right there in third, just two points behind the Jets.
Teams like Colorado and Dallas are slowly creeping up the division standings, as the Wild Card race tightens up.
The Jets now sport a record of 27-13-7 for 61 points. They sit second in the Western Conference and third in the NHL, behind only the Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning.
NOTE: For only the second time was there no option to "share" or embed the game hi-lights. Sorry about that.
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