The Winnipeg Jets have improved to 48-24-6 on the season.
After giving up a two-goal lead late in the game, the Winnipeg Jets battled back for a 4-3 overtime victory over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday evening. Kyle Connor got the deciding goal for Winnipeg, which improved its winning streak to four-straight.
Gabriel Vilardi, Mark Scheifele and Dylan DeMelo each scored first period goals for Winnipeg, while Connor Hellebuyck turned aside 45 shots for his 35th victory of the year, as the Jets improved to 48-24-6 on the season with the 4-3 win in extra time over the Nashville Predators.
"Bucky stood on his head," Scheifele said post-game. "He made those saves look easy and he kept us in this one. We didn’t play our game. We were just whacking the puck around giving them transition and that’s not the way we want to play.”
Entering the game in a fight for position in the Central Division, the two rival clubs were both looking to gain ground in their respective battle for home-ice advantage in the postseason.
Things did not start off well for the visitors, but Winnipeg rebounded, and did so rather quickly, rebounding to extend their winning streak to four games.
The Predators wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. Moments after an Adam Lowry interference minor expired, Nashville capitalized, with Tommy Novak finding his 16th of the year.
He scored off Nikolaj Ehlers' second turnover of the early stages, powering by the Jets' defence and tucking the puck past Connor Hellebuyck just 4:05 in.
But it was all Winnipeg after that.
First, on a Jets power play, Vilardi found the twine on his patented between-the-legs play. He went top shelf over Juuse Saros' left hand, knotting the game at ones not even halfway into the man advantage.
“A pretty nasty goal, for sure," DeMelo said of his teammate. "That one’s going to be on the highlight reel. We’ll see that on a lot. He’s got great hands in tight. You’ve seen it all year. And we’ve missed him there when he hasn’t been there. Such a key on the power play. Sucks a lot of guys in. And then if you give him room, he’ll do something like that. That was an amazing goal by a top player for our team.”
The goal was Vilardi's 20th of the season and came on Winnipeg's first shot of the game. And then 1:28 later, Scheifele got another for the Jets, scoring on back-to-back shots for Winnipeg.
The play was the result of a strong offensive zone shift by Tyler Toffoli, who wrestled the puck of a Predator, before finding Scheifele, who made a fancy move to finish the play.
Although being outshot 6-2 at that point, the Jets had a 2-1 lead off two goals in a span of just 1:28.
DeMelo got another for Winnipeg off a perfectly-placed wrist shot from the high slot. It came off a perfect pass from Morgan Barron, who found DeMelo wide-open in front.
The Predators maintained a slight shot lead through 20 minutes, despite trailing 3-1.
The second period resulted in an onslaught of Nashville shots, but neither team could muster up a goal.
The final frame saw the hosts mount another strong push, resulting in two goals in a span of 2:07, tying the game on their 44th shot of the night.
Whether or not the goals were a direct result of a fight between Logan Stanley and Michael McCarron remains unknown, as the two squared off just a minute-and-a-half into the period.
First, it was Spencer Stastney who batted a fluky goal out of mid-air, bringing those gathered at Bridgestone Arena to their collective feet in celebration.
Before they could even sit down, veteran forward Ryan O'Reilly scored the game-tying marker, finishing off another Roman Josi setup play. Both goals were results of soft defensive plays from second pair blueliner Neal Pionk.
“Yeah, we played well in the first and we played really well after they tied it up," head coach Rick Bowness said. "But between there really wasn’t our best hockey for sure. We have played better than that and lost, so we’ll take that. Our goalie was outstanding.”
Winnipeg held off Nashville's attack and made its way through the third period and earned five minutes of overtime.
The Jets needed just 1:52 of the extra frame, as Connor got the winner on a two-on-one play up-ice with Schefiele. He beat Saros low-glove side, finishing off the Predators - who clinched a postseason berth with the single point gained.
Hellebuyck turned aside 45 of the 48 Predators shots he faced, while Saros made just 18 stops on the 22 pucks directed his way by Winnipeg.
"A win’s a win," Scheifele said. "It wasn’t our prettiest, or our best, but Bucky won that game for us.”
Next up for the Jets is the third stop of the three-game road trip through the Central. Winnipeg will play Dallas on Thursday and then take on Colorado on Saturday afternoon.