Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 16: Lowry’s double OT winner completes Jets’ Game 7 comeback

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

The first playoff series to kick off the first round ended up being the last series to finish, and did it ever finish on a high note. This series between the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues had some high notes, but none quite like this Game 7, somehow even topping the epic between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

However, it started about as horrible as possible for the Jets. Jordan Kyrou beat Connor Hellebuyck on an ugly goal just 70 seconds in to open the scoring, and then six minutes later, Mathieu Joseph beat Hellebuyck clean to make it 2-0. To make matters worse, Josh Morrissey suffered an injury during that stretch of time, and left the game, so the Jets were down to five defensemen.

It didn’t get too much better in the second either, as even though Cole Perfetti chipped away at the lead with a power play goal, Radek Faksa scored in the final minute to make it 3-1. The Jets pressed in the third period, outshooting the Blues 15-4 over the course of the frame, but St. Louis held steady and managed to hang on to the lead. The closer it got to the end of the game, the more it felt like it was going to be another early exit for the Jets.

But, Winnipeg managed to pull off something that seemed impossible. Vladislav Namestnikov made it a one-goal game again with 1:56 left in the game, and the pressure was on. The Jets were relentless, and even the sequences in the dying seconds felt like the play was going to die and the Blues were going to hang on. But, a clean pass from Nikolaj Ehlers to Kyle Connor, who’s one-timer was deflected by Perfetti and in the net for his second of the game, and this game needed overtime.

And not just one overtime, but two. As if the fact that this being a Game 7 wasn’t enough to make this game an all-timer, we also got the longest game of the first round. It took all of 96:10 for one of Connor Hellebuyck or Jordan Binnington to be beaten for a fourth time, and unfortunately for the Blues, it was Binnington. Neal Pionk fired off a shot from the point, and Adam Lowry deflected it past the St. Louis netminder to win the game and end the series.

With that, the Jets took the game in double overtime by a score of 4-3, and win the series in seven games to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2021, where they’re set to face the Stars. Meanwhile the Blues’ entertaining run comes to an end, and they still find themselves with just one playoff series win since their Stanley Cup win in 2019.