On the fifth day of Jetsmas, Patrik Laine gave to us… 5 Golden Goals!
“It’s a high five for Patrik Laine!” Those words will probably always be in Christopher Haley’s mind. On November 24th, he was the lucky name drawn for the Safeway Score and Win Challenge. A contest run bye Safeway & Sobeys, offering up more than a million dollars if any one player from the Jets scores 5 goals in a game; And for the first time since Johan Franzen in 2011, Patrik Laine did just that.
Coming off back to back losses to Calgary and Minnesota, the Jets went into St Louis looking to turn things around. It didn’t start off too hot as the Blues opened the scoring 13:42 into the first period off a Blake Wheeler giveaway. Luckily Wheeler would redeem himself, tying the game at 1 with 4 minutes to go in the first. Less than sixty seconds later, Laine gives Winnipeg the lead with an absolute blast of a one-timer from Bryan Little.
Coming into the 2nd period tied at 2, the Jets were looking for something to spark them, Laine made that happen 2 minutes into the frame on a patented cross ice pass from Wheeler on the power play to put the Jets ahead by one. Leading the way for Tanev to put the Jets up by two goals halfway through the 2nd.
Laine wasn’t done there, presumably upset that Tanev had broken up his natural hat trick, he decided to start from scratch and score 2 more goals back to back in the 2nd to complete his 7th career hat trick and put the Jets up 6-2 going into the 3rd period. Also winning Chris Haley of Winnipeg a $1000 Safeway gift card and $100,000 in cash!
It didn’t take Patty much longer to make Winnipeg Jets history. Just a minute and sixteen seconds into the 3rd period, on another pass from Little, Laine sat waiting right in front of the Blues netminder. He blasts a wrister glove side past Jake Allen for his fifth goal of the game!
Almost instantly, the Internet was searching far and wide for who Christopher Haley was. A pastor for a Winnipeg church was the lucky winner. Netting himself 50 thousand dollars a year for 20 years, on top of his previous winnings. “First it was disbelief, then it was just shock and surprise…” Chris Haley told TSN’s Sara Orlesky in an interview during the following game against Pittsburgh.
This was the first time a Winnipeg Jets player has scored 5 in a game since Alexei Zhamnov did it more than 30 years ago. Hopefully, with any luck, it won’t be the last time either.
The 12 Days Of Jetsmas
