Winnipeg Found A New, Crotchpunchingly Painful Way To Lose

If you are a Winnipeg fan, you are used to things not going your way. So please don't be surprised when the Jets miss out on the postseason by a point or two, and this game-losing goal from the neutral zone with a minute left amounts to the difference.

The Jets' 5-4 loss to the Blues was a roller coaster of emotion, only one of those roller coaster rides that stops short, and you bash your teeth on the safety bar. Michael Hutchinson started in net for Winnipeg and surrendered four goals on seven shot, and was replaced by Ondrej Pavelec, who was excellent as the Jets scored three unanswered in the third to claw back to a tie. They seemed primed to grab a crucial point and a chance at a second, until Barret Jackman dumped the puck in with 1:03 remaining, floating it just past Pavelec.

What did you see on the winning goal, [Jets coach Paul] Maurice was asked.

"It went in," said the coach, leaning in the reporter's direction with a menacing glare. "There was nothing magical about it."

Pavelec declined to speak with reporters.

His counterpart doesn't quite know how it happened either, but isn't going to question it.

"I've never really screamed for a goal that we got but that was a quick, girlie high-pitched scream I had," Blues goalie Brian Elliott said. "Not pretty, but we'll take the two points and move on."

The Blues find themselves two points back of Nashville in the Central, with two games in hand. The Jets are barely holding on, a point up on the Kings for the final wild-card spot, and having played one more game.

H/t Christopher.