CHICAGO — The class of the Central. The best in the West. The Winnipeg Jets have soared to historic new heights.

A dramatic 5-4 shootout victory for the Jets on Saturday night here in Chicago wrapped up both their division and conference for the first time ever, including all the way back to the 1.0 era.

Go figure – a club that plenty of hockey pundits thought last fall might not even make the playoffs or, at best, would be in a wildcard position, could accurately say “We’re Number One.”

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele, left, and winger Cole Perfetti celebrate after Perfetti’s game-winning shootout goal against the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday, in Chicago.

“As an organization, as a city, a province, everybody is excited. And they should be because we’ve got a hell of a hockey team,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel told the Free Press outside the team’s locker room at United Center, while their road victory song, Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere, was blaring over the speakers.

“We’ve done a lot of good things this year. Hopefully this lasts a couple more months.”

Indeed, the Jets won’t be taking any victory laps despite crossing the finish line in first place at the end of the marathon that is the 82-game regular season. They know the real test begins next weekend when their record, and that of the other 15 teams in the hunt for the Stanley Cup, resets to 0-0-0.

“We know that at the end of the day, we’re going to get judged by what happens from Game 83 on,” said Arniel.

“But we’ve been trying to build our game all season long, that it gets us prepared for the playoffs. Whether that’s getting into big games and big moments, going through difficult stretches, playing in situations that resemble playoff games. Those are all the learning lessons and those are the scars that you get over the course of the year. This group is confident right now and they should be. We know that if we play our game and get to our game, we’re a tough out.”

The Jets entered the game needing just a single point over their final three contests to sew up the top spot in the Western Conference. That shouldn’t have been a problem against the league’s second-worst team, right?

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Chicago Blackhawks’ Connor Bedard handles the puck during the first period.

Not so fast.

Winnipeg fell behind 2-0 in the first period, rallied to take a 3-2 lead early in the third, surrendered two quick goals later in the frame and then tied it up with just under four minutes left in regulation. Cole Perfetti then ended the roller-coaster ride by scoring a beautiful shootout goal to grab the victory.

“It feels good. Obviously, the process tonight wasn’t very good. We weren’t thrilled with our game,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry.

“It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was nice to close it out and solidify home ice, for hopefully a long run. We haven’t really accomplished anything yet. We are still focused on the goal ahead but to have a small reward for the work we have put in throughout the year is a nice little feather in our cap.”

Winnipeg is now 55-21-4 as they tied a franchise record for points in a season with 114. They have two home games left to try and set a new benchmark.

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey unleashes a shot during the first period.

They have won three straight overall and are now five points ahead of Washington in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy. The Capitals have three games remaining and will need to win them all to have any chance to pass the Jets.

“It’s taken us 80 games to get this division. It’s been a grind and I don’t care how we got it. We got it,” said Arniel. “Teams in our division don’t go away, as good as we’ve played. Finally, to get that over and done with, it’s a relief.”

Let’s break this one down a bit further:

A COSTLY WIN?

It wasn’t all good news for the Jets as forward Nikolaj Ehlers left the game in the second period in obvious pain after a bizarre collision with a linesman. The Jets forward, who just returned on Thursday in Dallas after missing two straight games with a lower-body injury, backed into the official and fell awkwardly to the ice.

Ehlers needed help to eventually get off the ice and didn’t return to the game.

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Connor Murphy strips Winnipeg Jets winger Mason Appleton of the puck during the second period.

“We’ll see when we get home,” was Arniel’s initial update. When asked if he had a great level of concern, Arniel sounded a bit more optimistic.

“No. We’ll just see where he’s at. It’s just a little bit of the injury that he had before,” he said.

Ehlers, 29, has 63 points (24G, 39A) in 69 games, just one short of his career high. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent and the Jets can’t afford to be without him, especially with another top forward in Gabe Vilardi missing a 13th straight game on Saturday with an upper-body injury and with no set date to return.

BACK AND FORTH THEY WENT

The Jets were coming off two straight dominant outings against St. Louis and Dallas in which they outscored them 7-1 and gave up very little in the way of chances. There was very little of that type of play to be found in this one despite facing a Chicago team that had accumulated only 56 points this season, which was 56 fewer points than Winnipeg.

“Sometimes those games late in the year against teams are out of it quite a bit with a lot of young guys can look like that,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey.

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg handles the puck during the second period.

The Blackhawks are playing fast and loose and jumped on the Jets early. Nick Foligno opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal midway through the first, taking advantage of a puck-handling blunder by Connor Hellebuyck. Connor Bedard then beat Hellebuyck through the five-hole on an ensuing power play to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

Winnipeg began the comeback just past the midway mark of the game as Nino Niederreiter fired a rocket just under the crossbar with his team on the power play to cut the deficit in half. Then Kyle Connor tied it up later in the middle frame, scoring his team-leading 41st after linemate Alex Iafallo intercepted a clearing attempt and sprung him.

Morrissey gave the Jets their first lead at 2:08 of the third, firing a shot through traffic that eluded Chicago’s Spencer Knight. Just when you thought that might be it, the Blackhawks roared back.

Ryan Donato’s shot may have tipped off the stick of Jets forward Brandon Tanev to beat a surprised Hellebuyck at 10:53 of the final frame, and then rookie Frank Nazar made it 4-3 with 5:55 left in regulation following a Jets turnover in their own zone.

But back came the Jets, with Morrissey jumping into the play and burying a nice pass from defence partner Dylan DeMelo to score his second of the night and 14th of the year. He also eclipsed 60 points for the third straight year.

“It’s huge. You can’t say enough about what Josh means to our team, night in and night out,” said Lowry.

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stops a shot from Chicago Blackhawks right wing Ilya Mikheyev during the second period.

“Even when he is not on the scoresheet he plays so many minutes and impacts the game in some many different ways. To see him rewarded, to take over the third, when we were pushing for a goal, that is what star players in this league do. It was nice to take care of business ourselves. Obviously, we have preached if we take care of the games ahead of us we would put ourselves in a good spot and fortunately we were able to do that this week.”

KEY PLAY

Morrissey’s tying goal in the late stages of the third period gave the Jets the single point they needed to clinch the Central Division and the Western Conference.

THREE STARS

1. WPG D Josh Morrissey: 2 goals

2. CHI C Frank Nazar: 1 goal, 1 assist

3. WPG LW Kyle Connor: 1 goal, 1 assist

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Winnipeg Jets’ Cole Perfetti scores a Datsyukian game-winning on Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Spencer Knight, in the shootout, Saturday.

NOW WHAT?

The Jets will now play their final two regular-season games at home with nothing really on the line. They host the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night, then close out against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

Backup goalie Eric Comrie will make his 20th start of the year against Edmonton, and we’d expect to see all of the team’s healthy scratches Sunday — defencemen Ville Heinola, Colin Miller and Hayden Fleury and forwards Rasmus Kupari and David Gustafsson — get into the lineup. That would allow for some veterans to get some rest.

The Jets could also call up a couple players from the Manitoba Moose such as defenceman Elias Salomonsson and forward Brad Lambert — although he left Saturday’s AHL game with an apparent injury.

You’d imagine most, if not all, regulars would play Wednesday against the Ducks, with the Jets trying to strike a balance between rest and rust.

“You go into these games and you don’t want the bad habits, kind of what our first period looked like tonight,” Lowry said .

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Alec Martinez during the second period.

“When we went into Dallas we were fast, hunting the puck quick and going through bodies. We weren’t just swinging and waving out sticks. That can creep into your game when you don’t have a whole lot to play for. It is important from the messaging coming down from leadership that we use these next two to get geared up, regardless who we play in the first round. They are tough matchups. There are a lot of good teams in this league. You want to get the rest and have some good practices so come that game we are ready to go.”

FOND FAREWELLS

It was an emotional night at United Center as a pair of veteran Blackhawks played their final NHL game. Forward Patrick Maroon and defenceman Alec Martinez are both retiring and won’t play the final two road games for Chicago.

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They were given video tributes during the game, standing ovations from the crowd and rounds of applause from teammates, referees and linesmen and all members of the Jets, who lined up to shake their hands following the game.

“Obviously the hockey world is a small, small world. And you hear about guys, kind of through ex-teammates and stuff like that. And I think both Pat and Alec have always been talked about really highly from ex-teammates of theirs,” said Morrissey.

“It doesn’t always happen where a player knows when their last game is. So for two guys like that, that have had great careers, and have the respect of guys around the league for the way they played the game, and obviously, the type of people they are in their locker rooms, it was nice to be able to just do that for them and show them that respect that they deserve.”

Erin Hooley / The Associated Press Left wing Patrick Maroon played his final game for the Chicago Blackhawks against the Winnipeg Jets, Saturday. Maroon is retiring from the NHL.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.