Jets drop 3-2 decision to Montreal in OPT Barron scores OT winner

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In Winnipeg, the visiting Montreal Canadiens’ Justin Barron hit for a power-play goal  with 69 seconds gone in extra time on Monday night to give them a 3-2 win over the Jets.

“I wasn’t necessarily expecting to get on the ice there, and then it’s funny how it works out,” Barron said. “My brother (Jets forward Morgan Barron) gets on for them, and then [Mike Matheson] goes off for us and I get on. Yeah, definitely pretty special to do that.”

Jake Allen made 30 saves in the win.

“It wasn’t pretty tonight,” Allen said. “You know what, it’s not going to be perfect all the time. We’ve got to find different ways to win games. Especially if pucks bounce a little bit, it’s not on your tape all the time, it’s not perfect. Not like last game (5-3 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday) where we were snapping the puck around. We found a way to win, and a great shot by J.B.”

Montreal moved to 14-13-4.

“I feel like we’re locked in right now,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “I really do feel that way. It’s the most organized that we’ve been since I’ve taken this job, and it takes time to build that, different parts of the game, and we’re able to expand on some of the details inside the different concepts, different parts of the game that we want to address. So I think we’re just evolving as a team, but as a group I feel we’re really locked in.”

After a scoreless opening stanza, Josh Anderson picked up a marker at 4:57 of the middle frame for a 1-0 lead to the Habs.

“I thought it was a complete job by everybody tonight,” Anderson said. “We never quit, especially when they tied it up there late in the third period. But we stuck with it and obviously our special teams came up huge for us tonight.”

Montreal extended the advantage to 2-0 when Christian Dvorak potted a power play goal at 15:04 of the second.

The Jets dropped to 18-9-3

“In that first period there wasn’t much room out there for either team,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “It was fast-paced. It was a good period. Second period, honestly, it comes down to special teams. It’s another game that we lost (the special teams battle), and that’s what cost us the extra point.”

The Jets rallied back with two goals to force the extra session.

Gabriel Vilardi  trimmed the deficit to 2-1 with 56 seconds left in the second.

Cole Perfetti  forced the added time with a goal at 12:24 of the third period.

“It’s good to get a point, and obviously we would have wanted to get the win there, but every point matters,” Perfetti said. “It was a good team comeback to get that point. It’s big for us, but obviously we don’t want to put ourselves in a 2-0 hole in the first place.”

The Jets outshot the Canadiens, 15-5 in the third period.

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves in the loss.