The Winnipeg Jets, the team that can’t score, didn’t score again.
And that inability to put the puck in the net was the only thing that took the bloom off the rose that was the 2026 Heritage Classic,
In front of a sellout crowd of 32,323 at Princess Auto Stadium, the NHL’s vision of a Canadian log cabin motif came to life as the Montreal Canadiens came to Winnipeg and escaped with a 2-1 victory.
Three young Jets -- Elias Salomonsson, Brad Lambert and Viggo Bjorck -- march from their dressing room to start the 2026 Heritage Classic warm-ups (Photo by Danny Truong)
Other than the first eight or nine minutes of the game, the Jets were clearly the dominant team. They dominated puck possession and controlled the Montreal zone and didn’t give the Canadiens too many chances, but Winnipeg’s inability to score goals came back to bite them again.
The Jets have now lost four straight games by scores of 3-2, 2-1, 3-2 in overtime and 2-1. They are their own Vezina Trophy. Winnipeg netminder Stu Skinner has done his best, but apparently this team needs a shutout every night just to have a chance.
With the loss, Winnipeg fell to 4-5-3 on the season while the Canadiens improved to 6-3-2.
It was a wonderful evening on the campus of the University of Manitoba as the NHL and the Jets put on a terrific show. The stadium could not have looked more rustically Canadian.
However, the local faithful still went home unhappy as the home side just can’t figure out how to put the puck in the net.
The Canadiens jumped out and dominated the early going and outshot Winnipeg 4-1 through the first six minutes. But the Jets got their bearings and started to take the play to Montreal.
Late in the period, Winnipeg had a power play and really peppered Habs goaltender Jacob Fowler, but while they had four shots during the man-advantage, they couldn’t find a way to get the puck past the Montreal goaler.
The teams went to the break scoreless, although Winnipeg outshot the Canadiens 10-8.
The Canadiens opened the scoring at 7:19 of the second period when Lane Hutson converted a perfect pass from Noah Dobson to score his third of the season. Cole Caufield also drew an assist as the significant number of Habs fans in the stadium were delirious.
Later in the period, the Jets newest player, Dawson Mercer (who was obtained in the Connor Hellebuyck trade) created an outstanding scoring chance for himself but fired wide.
The Canadiens made it 2-0 at 11:04 when Kaiden Guhle took a pass from Caufield at the Jets blueline and blistered a shot that a startled Skinner never saw. Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky drew the assists.
Montreal makes it 2-0 (Photo by Danny Truong)
The Habs now had two goal lead and against the Jets, a team that simply can’t score, that was an insurmountable lead. Winnipeg outshot Montreal 11-7 in the second (21-15 after 40 minutes), but it didn’t matter.
In the third period, Mark Scheifele had a tremendous opportunity on the power play but was beaten by Fowler while Mercer had another solid chance in close but couldn’t convert.
Finally, at 15:24, Isak Rosen blasted a one-time snap-shot off a pass from Gabriel Vilardi that eluded Fowler and cut the Canadiens lead to one. Haydn Fleury also drew an assist as the Jets gave themselves a chance.
But even though they were handed their fourth power play of the game with 1:32 remaining, they couldn’t notch the tying goal.
Winnipeg outshot Montreal 14-6 in the third period – 35-21 overall. This game should have had a different outcome, but the Jets are simply gripping their sticks too tightly. They’ll get another shot at it on Tuesday night back at Canada Life Centre when Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers come to town.
At the end of the game, the teams shook hands as if it were the seventh game of the playoffs. They then saluted the sellout crowd. In all, it was a tremendous evening. From the pre-game flyover to SoulBear’s stirring national anthem to the bands during the first-intermission to the introduction of the Jets alumni, it was an almost perfect night of hockey.
Too bad the Jets couldn’t find the net.
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