THREE THINGS: Connor scores twice in loss to Mammoth

The Winnipeg Jets overcame a three-goal deficit but fell in overtime 4-3 to the Utah Mammoth to close out the pre-Christmas schedule with a 15-17-3 record. Kyle Connor scored twice and Morgan Barron added the other goal for the Jets who will now have five days off for the Christmas break and return to action on December 27 against the Minnesota Wild at Canada Life Centre.

FALLING BEHIND

The Jets were hoping to avoid falling behind like they did in Denver on Friday night when they trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes to the Avalanche. Unfortunately, the Mammoth scored two goals 4:11 apart with goals from Lawson Crouse and JJ Peterka in the opening period and added to their lead at the 3:01 mark of the second period with Alexander Kerfoot beating Connor Hellebuyck.

“There’s not much to be said. We were soft kind of all over the ice,” said Adam Lowry on TSN after the first period.

“it’s a lack of execution. There’s a lot of things, I think that first period it was a pretty disappointing effort.”

KC REACHES 300 CAREER GOALS

Things got better for the Jets after the Kerfoot goal as they turned things around in the middle frame and leaned on the power play to get their first goal of the night. Mark Scheifele spotted Kyle Connor open on the far side and Connor blasted home his 300^th career goal to make it 3-1. Connor is the third player in franchise history to reach 300 goals, joining Mark Scheifele and Ilya Kovalchuk. Connor becomes the second-fastest active American player to hit the mark, trailing only Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (482 games).

LATE COMEBACK FOR A POINT

Winnipeg dominated the early part of the third period and that allowed them to eventually tie the game. First it was Connor with his second of the night, thanks to a seeing eye pass from Josh Morrissey.

The Jets got the tying goal on some nice board work from Tanner Pearson who got the puck along the wall and sent a pass through two Mammoth players to Morgan Barron, and he tied the game at three.

As great as it was to see the Jets fight back from three goals down, head coach Scott Arniel was upset with another game of inconsistent play.

“We got better in the second, certainly dominated in the third. But at the end of the day, you can't play two periods in this league and look to have success,” said Arniel.

“That's 35 games, for me, of inconsistency throughout the games themselves or that might be individual players. In the remaining 47, that has to change."