from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,

This is what having your opponent on the ropes looks like.

It’s also what allowing your opponent to rise up off the mat looks like.

With a golden opportunity to place the Calgary Flames on life support, the Winnipeg Jets stumbled in what became a 3-1 loss on Wednesday night, setting the stage for a drama-filled final week-and-change of the regular season.

Moments after the final buzzer sounded, the Jets were already putting a positive spin on the situation, which includes these two teams in a virtual tie at 89 points in the Western Conference standings, separated merely by percentage points.

“A loss is a loss. But like I said, we could be in a worse position. We could be on the outside looking in,” said Jets centre Pierre-Luc Dubois, who seemed to be in the middle of a lot of melees on Wednesday night as he brought an incredibly high level of engagement. “We could be the team that played one more game right now and is still tied. The tiebreaker for us is better and we have a game in hand.

“We are obviously disappointed, like I’m not going to stand here and say that we are happy and thrilled, but we’re still in a good spot being on the inside. We just have to look forward to the next games here.”

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Catch the game highlights below.