Pionk scores OT winner as Winnipeg Jets edge Avalanche 3-2 – Winnipeg

Now that’s the kind of performance a coach will be pleased with.

Coming off a rough loss in Utah that head coach Scott Arniel described with an expletive, the Winnipeg Jets bounced back with a hard-earned 3-2 overtime win in Denver Wednesday night over the division rival Colorado Avalanche.

Neal Pionk ended a thriller with a slapper from the top of the circle just 17 seconds into the O.T. period to give the Jets the victory. It was almost identical to another overtime goal he scored in the same building back in 2022.

“The puck must go a little faster in the altitude,” Pionk joked. “I don’t know what it is. Yeah no, just made a good shot.”

Morgan Barron and Gabriel Vilardi scored the other goals for Winnipeg.

The Jets played without their captain with Adam Lowry out week-to-week after suffering an upper-body injury. But Winnipeg had two players back from injury as Mason Appleton returned from an 11-game absence, while Haydn Fleury was back in the lineup after sitting out the last 12 games.

The Jets beat the Avs for the third this season in their fourth and final meeting of the campaign.

“It was a battle,” said Arniel. “We had lots of zone time against them. They certainly got lots against us. We had to use our whole bench to be strong tonight.

“But I really liked how we played. There was a lot of good things off of that.”

Arniel called their last effort embarrassing in the loss to Utah and his team responded with a big two points.

“I think it’s good coach challenges us,” said Josh Morrissey. “We’ve asked for that. We want to be pushed like an elite team and we have been an elite team this year. So, we’ve responded well when we haven’t had our best games this year so far.

“I thought we battled hard and it wasn’t perfect but that’s the game of hockey, and found a way to get two points.”

The Jets had a key penalty kill in the final four minutes of regulation just to get the game to overtime.

“We had some good sticks,” Arniel said. “There was a couple where they did get into the middle with it or tried to make plays.

“We just did a good job of kind of packing it in, but when we had a chance to flare out and go get the loose pucks, we did.”

Both teams failed to find the back of the net in the first. Both failing on a power play chance but the best opportunity belonged to Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. With the Avs on a power play, he zoomed up the ice, undressed Pionk and tossed a backhander on net. It went through Connor Hellebuyck but it hit the post and wound up sitting behind Hellebuyck in the crease before he froze it for a whistle.

MacKinnon would not be denied in the second, however. With a few Jets stuck out at the end of a long shift, the dynamic forward took advantage, collecting a pass at the Winnipeg blueline and darting around Nino Niederreiter and into a ton of open ice in the slot. His initial shot hit the post but he was first to the rebound and fired it into an open net to open the scoring at the 6:09 mark.

It stayed 1-0 until the 10:56 mark when Winnipeg’s fourth line got a rare tally. David Gustafsson skated the puck into the Colorado end along the right-hand wall before sliding a perfect backhand pass across the ice to Barron for a net-front tap-in, drawing the Jets level. It was Gustafsson’s first point of the season.

Winnipeg grabbed their first lead of the night after the Avalanche iced the puck with less than two minutes to go in the second. The Jets won the faceoff, cycled the puck and got a few shots on net before a Morrissey point shot went off Vilardi’s leg and past Mackenzie Blackwood with 1:16 to go in the period.

The Jets entered the night with a 22-0-1 record when leading after two but that would be put to the test by the Avalanche, who tied the game just over seven minutes into the third.

Mikko Rantanen carried the puck into the Winnipeg end before dropping it off to Cale Makar. The speedy blueliner skated towards the net and as he was being tripped by Dylan DeMelo, he lifted the puck over Hellebuyck’s glove to tie the game.

The game stayed tied deep into the third when Colorado was given a questionable power play with just over four minutes left. Nikolaj Ehlers caught MacKinnon with a hip check in the Winnipeg zone but was assessed a tripping penalty on the play. Controversy was avoided when the Jets killed it off, setting the stage for overtime.

Colorado won the draw but a missed pass gave Winnipeg the puck, allowing Pionk to skate the puck into the Avalanche zone where he wound up and ripped a slapshot past Blackwood to end the game just 17 seconds into the extra frame. It was Pionk’s third career overtime winner.

The Jets return home to host Utah on Friday. The action begins just after 7 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting at 5 p.m.

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