Anatomy of a game-tying goal: Desperation, chaos as Jets forced overtime – Winnipeg Sun

Things didnt work out in the end for the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night, but that shouldnt diminish the magic moment they created by scoring a game-tying goal with 22 seconds left in the third period against the Vegas Golden Knights.

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When Adam Lowry knocked in a rebound to tie the score at 4-4, the noise in Canada Life Centre reached levels rarely heard before in Winnipeg.

It evoked memories of Dave Elletts famous double overtime goal against Edmonton in 1990 or Jacob Troubas goal that tied the Jets 3-3 with the Nashville Predators after the home side fell behind 3-0 in a 2018 playoff game.

I dont think anybody could really hear anybody on the bench

Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt

Even though the Jets lost 5-4 in double overtime on Saturday night, people in the building will remember that goal for a long, long time.

I dont think anybody could really hear anybody on the bench, Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt said. It was pretty special.

It was a pretty impressive goal for the Jets, who trailed 4-1 entering the third period but got goals from Nino Niederreiter and Mark Scheifele to make it 4-3.

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Heres how the game-tying goal unfolded:

Vlad Namestnikov dumped the puck into the Vegas zone with 1:10 to go in regulation, just as goalie Connor Hellebuyck was getting to the bench for an extra attacker.

Blake Wheeler got to the puck on the far boards but it got by him and was kept in by Neal Pionk, who threw it toward the net, creating scoring chance for Scheifele.

From there, Scheifele, Wheeler and Namestnikov had to win a puck battle on the boards before rimming it around to Kyle Connor.

Connor and Lowry both won puck battles to create a point shot for Pionk, a drive that went wide.

The puck wound up slowly rolling toward the point and William Karlsson of the Knights got to it first, needing only to get it out of the zone to likely end the game.

Karlssons one-handed attempt was cut off by Wheeler, who got the puck back down low to Connor.

From there, the puck was rimmed around all the way to Pionk at the left point. He made a great decision to throw the puck on net instead of putting it back down the boards, where the Vegas defenders were stacked up.

Pionks shot got through to Brossoit and both Lowry and Namestnikov were there, causing havoc in front of the Vegas goalie.

Lowry banged it in and pandemonium ensued.

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It was chaos, Pionk said.

A couple of big keep-ins. Guys were working hard and honestly, my mindset was just to throw pucks at the net. I knew that were under 30 seconds left and you get a rolling puck up the wall and if I throw it down the wall, it kills another five or maybe 10 seconds. If it got blocked, so be it. But I got a little lucky, threw it at the net and (Lowry) put it in.

Jets coach Rick Bowness said it was just the right amount of urgency, hard work and puck luck that combined to create the goal.

It was all about desperation, is what it was, and whatever it took to keep that puck in, Bowness said Sunday.

And give Neal Pionk a lot of credit because he saw as the puck moved from side to side it opened up and he didnt hesitate to throw it down into the net. It doesnt have to be the hardest shot, it has to get down to the net, and we had two guys down there, Vladdy and Adam, and fortunately we were able to bang home that rebound.

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Bowness said the Jets were actually not very good at scoring with their goalie pulled this season they gave up 17 empty net goals but everything came together just right on Saturday.

Those things are mostly scrambles and thats exactly what (Saturday) night was.

The puck is going over here, youve got to win then race to keep it in. It comes over here, youve got to win the race to get it back here. You get it up here, youve got to be ready to put it on the net and youve got to have somebody there.

So everything did kind of fall into place. It did help that we were desperate to keep it in that it did go east to west and up to the top and then right to the net.

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman

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Anatomy of a game-tying goal: Desperation, chaos as Jets forced overtime - Winnipeg Sun

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