Three things - Lowry 2OT winner sends Jets to round 2

WINNIPEG – Adam Lowry became the second captain in NHL history to score an overtime goal in a Game 7 joining Steve Yzerman (1996 CSF w/ DET vs. STL) as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in double overtime. Cole Perfetti scored twice, Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk had three assists for the Jets who will face the Dallas Stars in the second round starting Wednesday at Canada Life Centre.

GUTSY EFFORT BY THE D

There is no question the Jets were nervous to start Game 7 as St. Louis jumped on the board first with Jordan Kyrou finishing off a nice passing play from Colton Parayko at 1:10 to open the scoring. Five minutes into the period, Oskar Sundqvist got Josh Morrissey with a solid hit against the boards that appeared to stun the Jets defenceman. Then off a neutral zone turnover, Mathieu Joseph skated in and beat Connor Hellebuyck with a wrist shot for a 2-0 Blues lead. Morrissey left the game shortly after that goal and Winnipeg played the rest of the night with five defencemen. Neal Pionk (46:15), Dylan Samberg (44:00), Dylan DeMelo (36:40), Haydn Fleury (33:02) and Luke Schenn (27:49) did a tremendous job filling in for Morrissey.

“I mean, to play this long of a game with five defensemen, it's pretty incredible. So, hats off to those guys. They stuck with it,” said Nikolaj Ehlers.

“They battled, as forwards, we tried to help out as much as possible with getting pucks out of our zone so they could get some quick changes. But those guys stuck with it.”

GIVETH AND TAKETH AWAY

Winnipeg got themselves back in the game in the second period while on the power play, it took them all of seven seconds to get on the board. Cole Perfetti redirected a Kyle Connor past Jordan Binnington for his second goal of the series, with both of them coming on the power play.

The Jets played a solid period but with less than 30 seconds left in the frame, another neutral zone turnover ended up in the back of the Winnipeg net. Radek Faksa’s wrist shot eluded Hellebuyck on the glove side to restore the Blues two goal lead heading into the third.

THE COMEBACK

Just when it seemed like the Blues were going to skate out of Winnipeg with a series victory with time winding down in the third, St. Louis was hanging on to their two-goal lead. Neal Pionk spotted a wide-open Vladislav Namestnikov, and his quick shot went off the skate of Ryan Suter and behind Binnington with 1:56 remaining.

That set the stage for a crazy finish, Nikolaj Ehlers fanned on his initial shot attempt and Adam Lowry did an excellent job winning his battle to get the puck back to Ehlers. The Danish forward sent the puck to the far side to Connor who quickly threw the puck to the slot and Perfetti tipped in the tying goal with less than two seconds left to send the game to overtime.

It took an extra 36 minutes and change for this game to end, the Jets outshot St. Louis heavily from the start of the third through almost two overtimes 34-13. On the winning goal, it was Lowry tipping a point shot from Pionk at 16:10 of double overtime sending the Jets to the second round for the first time since 2021. The Jets became the third Canadian team to advance past the First Round after the Maple Leafs and Oilers did so Thursday. The 2025 Stanley Playoffs marked the second postseason in the last 20 where three Canadian teams earned at least one series win (also 3 in 2020).

"To do it in Winnipeg at home — we have such tremendous fans, such tremendous support, just really happy we get to continue playing in front of them. They’ve been such a blessing for us all year. It makes it a real tough building to play in," said Adam Lowry.

"We feed off that energy. To feel how it kind of, the momentum shifted after Vladdy scores and Fetts has his second of the game, it almost felt like the ice tilted and we were really able to start controlling play, and we had some great chances early in overtime and we really fed off that."