THREE THINGS: Jets third period push comes up short

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets made a desperate push in the third period but could not get the tying goal falling 2-1 to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Ceasars Arena for the seventh straight loss. For the second straight game, a former Jet scored the winning goal as Mason Appleton recorded the GWG Wednesday night. Logan Stanley scored his seventh of the season and Connor Hellebuyck made 17 saves, the Jets will get right back to work on New Years Day when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.

NOT SO GOOD BEGINNING

After six fantastic periods but without the results that they deserved, the Jets were hoping that their solid play would carry over into Detroit. After a solid first five minutes for Winnipeg, the Red Wings opened the scoring while on the power play, Dylan Larkin wired a shot over the shoulder of a screened Connor Hellebuyck at 8:22. Then an unfortunate bounce gave the Wings a 2-0 lead, Mason Appleton’s shot was stopped by Hellebuyck, but the puck went off Luke Schenn and into the net. Winnipeg managed just five shots in the opening frame.

NO QUIT OVER THE FINAL 40

The little hiccup in the first period was quickly put behind the Jets as they started to roll outshooting Detroit 11-6 in the second. It was the third where Winnipeg really put the pedal to the medal as they dominated and were finally rewarded at 7:04 when Logan Stanley got them on the board.

Former Red Wing Gustav Nyquist had a phenomenal chance to tie the game late with Hellebuyck on the bench, the Swedish forward hit the goal post. Dylan DeMelo also had a massive opportunity late but couldn’t get the shot to go. Overall, head coach Scott Arniel liked what he saw but recognized things have to start changing real soon.

“We cannot change in the sense of how we’re playing and in the sense of how hard we’re playing, how hard we’re competing and the amount of opportunities that we’re getting," said Arniel.

"But man oh man, we’ve got to find a way somehow. Maybe in 2026, we can find it. We’ll move off of 2025 and maybe in 2026, we can start scoring some goals.”

ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR JMO

Hours after being named to Canada’s Olympic roster, Josh Morrissey skate in his 700^th NHL game joining Toby Enstrom as the only two defencemen in franchise history to do so. Morrissey is on pace to pass Enstrom later this season as well, currently only 19 games behind his mark of 719. Morrissey is now also 13 points shy (403) of tying Dustin Byfuglien’s franchise record for points by a defenceman (416). Morrissey played a team leading 23:43 and talked about becoming an Olympian in February.

“It's an incredible honor. And something that, like I said when I found out this morning it was, it was amazing,” said Morrissey on CJOB postgame.

“So just really excited to have that opportunity, honored to have that opportunity. And obviously, can't wait to get there with those guys and with that group and go try and do something special.”