It wasn’t a full house, but the folks who were inside Canada Life Centre on Wednesday night, nearly screamed the roof off the joint.
With one minute to play in regulation time, Mark Scheifele made an absolutely magical pass from the right wing onto the stick of Kyle Connor cruising into the slot. Connor drilled it past Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood for the winning goal as the Winnipeg Jets upset the Colorado Avalanche, the team considered to be the best in hockey, by a score of 3-2.
As 14,006 of the faithful at Canada Life Centre went nuts, they all knew that the difference in the game was goaltender Stu Skinner. Skinner made 32 saves on 34 shots as Colorado outshot Winnipeg 34-19 – 7-2 in the third period. Skinner was brilliant from opening faceoff to final buzzer as the Jets improved to 3-0-1 to start the 2026-27 season.
“it makes me feel at home to be here,” said Skinner. “We stick together every game and we’re really tight. We just play with a passion to win games. In that dressing room it’s a real brotherhood of man. It’s a great team to be on.”
The Jets also earned the victory without their best defenceman for most of the game. Josh Morrissey injured his hand on the last shift of the first period, played one shift in the second and was done for the night. But when Morrissey went down, Neal Pionk, Dylan Samberg, Dylan DeMelo, Mario Ferraro and Jack St. Ivany picked up the slack and did what they were asked.
It certainly didn’t hurt, however, that Skinner brought his A game.
In fact, the first period was all Skinner. On the Avalanche’s first and only power-play of the night, they had seven shots on goal, many from ideal spots around the net and Skinner stopped all of them.
In the end, Colorado outshot Winnipeg 17-6, but Skinner stopped everything he saw. It was a virtuoso goaltending performance, and it kept the Jets in a game they had no right to be in.
In the second period, Skinner made three stops – two of them were magnificent – until the Jets gave the puck away in the slot and Jaden Schwartz ripped a one-timer to Skinner’s stick side. It was 1-0 Colorado at 2:51 of the second and the Avs had outshot the Jets 20-6.
But to their credit, the Jets didn’t back off. At 4:01, Neal Pionk took a shot from the point that was tipped by Kyle Connor, and the Avs’ Mackenzie Blackwood never saw it. That tied the game on the Jets’ ninth shot. It was Connor’s fourth of the season as Pionk and Dylan Samberg drew the assists.
The crowd was only kept awake for the next 10-12 minutes because of the brilliance of Skinner and a couple of decent chances for Mark Scheifele and Viggo Bjorck that were turned aside by Blackwood.
Then, at 18:16 a seemingly meaningless shot from the point by Samberg deflected off Cole Perfetti in front and eluded the Avs’ goaler. Suddenly the Jets had a 2-1 lead as Samberg and Scheifele (his first point of the season) drew the assists on Perfetti’s third of the year (he had 12 goals all last season).
Mark Scheifele before the big goal (Photo by Danny Truong)
When the period ended, the Jets were ahead by a goal despite being outshot 27-17 (11-10 Jets in the second) and did not look out of place against the best team in the NHL.
However, in the third period, after checking the Avs right into the ice, Winnipeg gave up the puck in its own end once again and Fedor Svechkov found a loose puck in front of Skinner and shoved it between the Winnipeg goaltender’s legs. That came at 12:35 and Colorado was all even and back in the driver’s seat.
In fact, although Scheifele had a great chance and fired it wide, the Jets had one shot on goal in the first 15 minutes of the third period. It was all Colorado.
But then came the rush. Scheifele brought the puck out of his own end, skated into the Avs zone, went toward the corner and then whipped the pass back into the slot where Connor ripped it home for his second of the game. It was a brilliant way to finish a terrific evening of hockey.
The three stars were Skinner, Connor (now with five goals in four games) and the Avs’ Jayden Schwartz, but Scheifele was easily one of the most effective players on the ice, picking up his first two points of the season. Amazingly, all four of the Jets games this season were decided by one goal -- the 4-3 OT loss to Boston then the three 3-2 wins over Detroit, Pittsburgh and Colorado.
The Jets have a day off and will then play host to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday evening at 7 p.m. at the downtown rink.
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