Colin Miller (6) days remain until the Jets kick off their 2025-26 NHL regular season at home against the Dallas Stars. A final pre-season game was tonight’s priority for the Jets, as they were in Calgary looking for a win to end their six game pre-season. Entering tonight’s game, the Jets were 1-3-1 in the pre-season, but record aside, the team has had an overall productive pre-season as they shape up and finalize their opening night roster.

As it was the pre-season finale, the Jets went with a lineup that should closely resemble their opening night projected lines. Jonathan Toews (day-to-day) and Dylan Samberg (broken wrist) are the two Jets players that continue to remain out with no new updates on their status as of late. With Toews out, Vladislav Namestnikov played on the Jets 2nd line with Gustav Nyquist and Cole Perfetti. Parker Ford, who’s been quite noticeable (in a good way) for the Jets this pre-season slotted into the 4th line with Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson.

Logan Stanley was in Dylan Samberg’s usual spot on the 2nd defence pairing with Neal Pionk. Connor Hellebuyck got his 2nd start of the pre-season, as he continues to prepare to defend his Vezina Trophy. Tonight’s game looked almost like a regular season game with the final few roster spots on the line, and the Jets battled back in this game to win it with a must see shootout goal by Tanner Pearson.

Puck drop was just after 8 pm CT, and right from the opening few minutes of this game you could tell that the regular season was right around the corner. The first 5 minutes of the game each team managed 3 shots on goal as they looked for that important first goal.

After teams continued to trade chances, the Flames opened the scoring. After some good puck movement by the Flames in the Jets zone, Joel Farabee and Adam Klapka set up an unmarked Nazem Kadri in front, and he snapped one past Hellebuyck to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

Just four minutes later, the Flames doubled their lead. Kevin Bahl’s point shot was only half blocked by Haydn Fleury’s stick, and Matvei Gridin picked up the puck in front and backhanded it past Hellebuyck to make it 2-0 Flames. The shot itself looked like one Hellebuyck could have saved, but it was another goal where a Flames player was unmarked in front of the net.

Almost five minutes later, the Jets got on the scoreboard. Tanner Pearson and Cole Koepke set up Haydn Fleury at the point, and his wrist shot found its way past Dustin Wolf into the back of the net. The Jets needed this goal, and you could tell that Fleury was glad he made up for what some people called a “mistake” on the Flames 2nd goal.

Just 2 minutes later, the Flames re-gained their 2 goal lead. Morgan Frost and Mackenzie Weegar set up Joel Hanley at the point, and he fired a wrist shot that went past a heavily screened Hellebuyck into the top corner. One minute later, Josh Morrissey took an interference penalty, giving the Flames a shortened powerplay to end the 1st. The Jets penalty killers shut them down, and despite outshooting the Flames 12-9 in the 1st, the Jets found themselves down 3-1 after 20 minutes.

It only took another four minutes for the Flames to further extend their lead to 4-1. The trio of Adam Klapka, Kevin Bahl and Nazem Kadri each picked up their 2nd point of the night on Kadri’s 2nd goal of the game. A brief two on one led to a give and go play that ended with Kadri wristing one up from close into the net past a sprawling Hellebuyck.

This night full of goals continued just two minutes later. Cole Perfetti sent a pass across to Luke Schenn who took a low slap shot on net. Wolf made the initial save, but Gustav Nyquist was in front to quickly collect the rebound and snapped one into the net to make this a 4-2 game.

The Jets got their first powerplay of the night two minutes later, but were unsuccessful. A few minutes after the powerplay ended, Luke Schenn was called for roughing, giving the Flames their 2nd powerplay of the night. The two minute advantage went by pretty quickly without a goal, and this entertaining game remained 4-2 at the halfway mark. The Flames got another powerplay with 3 minutes left in the 2nd, but the Jets again shut the Flames down, and after 40 minutes it was still 4-2 Flames.

The final period of Jets pre-season hockey in 2025 began with another Jets penalty. The 3rd also began without Cole Perfetti and Dylan DeMelo, who both left the game earlier with undisclosed injuries. Jets fans hope this was just precautionary, but we’ll find out more on their statuses after the game. Seconds after the Jets improved to 4 for 4 on the penalty kill, Alex Iafallo made it a 4-3 game. Vladislav Namestnikov and Gustav Nyquist (with a sweet no look pass) created the opportunity for Iafallo to snap the puck into the back of the net.

Not even two minutes after the goal, the Jets took yet another penalty. You have to give a lot of credit to the Jets penalty killers for keeping this game close, as the Flames were soon 0 for 5 on the powerplay. The Jets got their 2nd powerplay of the night with 10 minutes to go, but they couldn’t be the team to get a goal on the man advantage.

Less than a minute after the powerplay, Parker Ford tied this game up at 4. The Jets were once trailing 4-1, but after a Logan Stanley point shot (that was set up by Morgan Barron) was tipped in by Ford, this game was now suddenly 4-4.

Two minutes later, the Jets had an opportunity to complete the comeback on the powerplay. As you may have guessed by the result of this game, the Jets couldn’t take the lead on this advantage. What was now a combined 8 powerplays in the game resulted in no powerplay goals. This game needed overtime, as the Jets erased a 4-1 Flames lead and led in shots on goal 32-27 after 60 minutes.

Teams traded chances in the 3 on 3 overtime but neither team would get the game winner. Jets outshot the Flames 3-2 in the extra 5 minutes, and this game required a shootout with the Jets leading the shots on goal total 35-29. Despite a rocky start to the game, Connor Hellebuyck deserves some credit for shutting the door after the Jets went down 4-1, helping them get to this point in the game.

The Flames scored on their 2nd shootout attempt (Justin Kirkland), while Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele were unsuccessful. Gabriel Vilardi tied the shootout at 1 on the Jets third attempt, before Rasmus Anderson made it 2-1 Flames in the shootout in the 5th round. Josh Morrissey needed to score, and he did, sending the shootout to extra rounds. After both teams were unsuccessful in the 6th round, Kadri missed in the 7th round. Tanner Pearson had a chance to win it and complete the Jets comeback, and he did just that, with a very bizarre and somewhat lucky game winning goal.

The Jets leave the pre-season on a very positive note, ending with a 2-3-1 record in the games that don’t count in the standings. The good news is that the team was in close games throughout the pre-season, which helps prepare for those situations in the regular season. Up next, the Jets begin their 2025-26 NHL regular season with a game at Canada Life Centre on October 9th against the Dallas Stars at 7 pm CT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for news leading up to that game, including the opening night roster announcement!