THREE THINGS: Jets lose Fleury early in OT loss to Vegas

WINNIPEG - Tomas Hertl scored with 13 seconds left in overtime to give the Vegas Golden Knights a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre. Cole Perfetti, Luke Schenn and Kyle Connor scored for the Jets who have now dropped 10 straight games. Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves, Winnipeg continues their five-game homestand when they host the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

GOAL DROUGHTS ENDING

The Jets opened the scoring on a beautiful passing play started by Josh Morrissey who found Jonathan Toews in the slot, Toews then put a perfect backhand pass on Cole Perfetti’s stick, Perfetti beat Carter Hart for a 1-0 Jets lead at 5:16. It was Perfetti’s third goal of the season and first since November 29.

That lead held until the second period, when Luke Schenn who was celebrating his 1,100th game in the NHL, took a quick shot from the blueline that beat Hart for his first goal as a Jet and made it 2-0. It was the 36-year-olds first goal since October 19, 2024.

SCARY MOMENT

A scary moment in the first period with Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury went hard into the boards after being hit by Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar.

Before the 29-year-old was stretchered off the ice, the entire Jets bench came over to surround Fleury. Kolesar was visibly upset afterwards and skated over and said something to Fleury. After the game, head coach Scott Arniel had this update on Fleury.

"Obviously he’s got a lot of tests to go through. He does have a broken nose," said Arniel.

"There’s a few different things that happened off it. A little bit of everything. He obviously slammed his back, his neck, hit his head, and then obviously his nose.”

“I thought in the second period we had some looks and did some good things. Obviously, what happened there to Fleurs, we just hope that he’s okay,” said Luke Schenn.

“You never like seeing that for anyone in the game, it doesn’t matter which team. But when you’ve got a buddy like that and a friend in a spot like that, obviously, it shakes guys up. But trainers, doctors, everyone there did a great job. I’m just thinking of him and praying that he’s going to be fine.”

ONE GOAL LOSS

Vegas scored a power play goal at the end of the second to make it 2-1, before Brett Howden tied it at 8:13 of the third. However, the Jets got their lead back when Kyle Connor scored his 20^th of the season at 14:56 and it looked like Winnipeg was on the verge of ending their winless streak.

However, Vegas battled back again on a lucky bounce for the visitors, Ben Hutton’s shot hit Brandon Saad and went right to Reilly Smith who scored at 15:55 to tie it at three. Vegas would score on the power play in overtime ending a highly entertaining contest, but the Jets were once again on the wrong side of a one-goal game and are now 4-10-5 this season.

“We're playing hard. There's no quitting this group,” said Perfetti.

“I mean, like you said, some teams would throw in the towel. I feel like we still have fight, we still have belief and hope in this group, but we know what we're capable of, and we just need one of these games to go our way. Get some confidence, get some momentum and then we're off to the races.”