The Jets overall positive eight game home stand concluded tonight at Canada Life Centre. The Jets battled their way to a 3-2 win on Sunday afternoon against a team close to them in the standings, the St. Louis Blues. Tonight, the Jets played another Central Division opponent who was just one point ahead of them in the standings, the Nashville Predators. The Jets are currently still six points out of a playoff spot with 16 games remaining prior to tonight. The 28-28-10 Jets took on the 29-28-9 Predators, a team that entered Winnipeg on a 3-5-2 stretch in their last 10 games with a total goal differential on the season of -30.

There were still no changes to the Jets line combinations against the Predators. Alex Iafallo remains on the 1st line, while Gabriel Vilardi remains on line 2. Isak Rosen continues to look solid on the 3rd line with Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, while Cole Koepke, Morgan Barron and Brad Lambert remains the current 4th line. Elias Salomonsson holds down his spot on the 2nd pairing with Dylan Samberg, while the 3rd pairing is still Haydn Fleury with Jacob Bryson.

Connor Hellebuyck got the start in goal after Eric Comrie started the second half of a back to back on Sunday afternoon. The Jets lineup still has four players out due to injuries: Neal Pionk, Colin Miller, Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 17-18-0 record, a 2.75 GAA and a .901 SV%. Tonight’s game started with the Predators opening the scoring on a powerplay, and the Jets tied the game at three with a minute left before losing in a shootout.

The Jets and Predators both started this game rather “cautiously”, with both teams getting just 3 shots on goal in the first 10 minutes. There wasn’t a lot of offensive zone time for either team early on, before the Predators got the first powerplay of the night with 9 minutes left.

With time running out on the powerplay, the Predators made some nice passes, and Luke Evangelista set up Roman Josi at the point where he collected the puck before firing a low wrist shot on goal. Erik Haula was screnning Connor Hellebuyck in front and deflected the puck into the net for his 11th goal of the season.

The Jets got their turn on the powerplay two minutes after the Predators opened the scoring. Despite some chances, the Jets weren’t able to tie this game on the man advantage. The Jets continued to push for the equalizer for the rest of the period, but they continued to trail 1-0 after 19 minutes.

With 40 seconds remaining, Josh Morrissey scored his 12th goal of the season. Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi set up Morrissey alone in front for a wrist shot that Juuse Saros had little to no chance of saving.

The first 20 minutes started a little slow but picked up after the first goal, and the Jets outshot the Predators 14-7 after the 1st. It was an overall solid start to the Jets final game of their season long eight game home stand while wearing their heritage blue jerseys for the last time this season.

The 2nd began with each team getting a few chances at breaking this tie. Filip Forsberg tripped Mark Scheifele at the blue line 5 minutes into the 2nd, sending the Jets to the powerplay. Right off the face off draw, the Jets worked the puck down low before Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti set up Gabriel Vilardi in tight for his 26th goal of the season to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.

The Jets lead only lasted about 5 minutes, as Filip Forsberg made up for his penalty leading to the Jets go ahead goal. Ryan Ufko and Jonathan Marchessault set up Filip Forsberg for a short side slap shot that went up and over Hellebuyck to tie this game at two.

The Jets got a late powerplay with just over two minutes left in the 2nd. There were a few chances on this advantage for the Jets to re-gain the lead, but Saros kept this game tied at two. Shots on goal were 26-15 after 40 minutes played, as the Jets outshot the Predators 12-8 in the second frame. Despite the Jets looking in control for parts of this game, it was anyone’s game heading into the final 20 minutes of this important Jets regular season home game.

The 3rd started with Filip Forsberg taking his 2nd tripping penalty of the night. It’s usually always tougher to have a good powerplay to start a period, and that was the case here, as the game remained tied at two. Shots on goal were 28-17 for the Jets with 13 minutes remaining, and it still looked like it could be anyone’s game.

That penalty would end up being the only penalty in the 3rd, and with 6 minutes left the Predators took a 3-2 lead. The puck was flipped out of the Predators zone and collected by Marchessault, who found Matthew Wood entering the zone. Wood waited and snapped a shot up over Hellebuyck for his 15th goal of the season.

The Jets battled back well after this goal, continuing to push for another equalizer. With the net empty, Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele set up Jonathan Toews in front for his 8th goal of the season. With just 61 seconds remaining, Toews tied this game yet again, and tonight’s game needed overtime.

Shots on goal were 35-21 for the Jets heading into the 3 on 3 overtime. The Jets got the first handful of chances in overtime, outshooting the Predators 4-0 late into overtime. It was an exciting end to the overtime as Hellebuyck made a pair of big saves, and at the end of overtime it was still tied at 3. Final shots on goal were 39-23 for the Jets.

The first round of the shootout saw Vilardi fail to score followed by a deke and a goal from Ryan O’Reilly. Mark Scheifele and Filip Forsberg were unable to score in the 2nd round. Kyle Connor needed to score for the Jets in the 3rd round, but his attempt hit the post. The Predators skated out of Canada Life Centre with a 4-3 shootout win despite getting outshot 39-23.

The Jets conclude their eight game home stand with a very solid 5-2-1 record, keeping their slim playoff hopes alive for another stretch of games.

After this final game of the season-long eight game home stand, the Jets will reset for a day, before beginning a three game road trip. Their regular season schedule continues on Thursday in Boston with a game against the Bruins. Puck drop for this game will be just after 6:00 pm CDT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the latest playoff odds), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.