Jets win second-straight in overtime, improve to 3-0-0.
The Winnipeg Jets improved to 3-0-0 on the season with their second overtime victory of Thanksgiving weekend Sunday evening.
The Jets fell behind early, but once again battled back to help goaltender Connor Hellebuyck improve to three wins on the year.
Kyle Connor got the overtime power play winner for Winnipeg, while Mark Scheifele scored the other goal for the home club.
“He’s an amazing player," Mark Scheifele said of the overtime hero, post-game. "That shot was absolutely phenomenal. I am very thankful for KC, that’s for sure."
It took all of 4:06 for the Wild to get on the board. It was a seeing-eye Jake Middleton point shot that found its way through traffic, giving Minnesota a 1-0 lead early in the first period.
Both teams were later treated to power plays as the period wore on, but the goaltenders and penalty killing units came through, keeping further pucks out of the nets - at least for the time being.
With the Wild penalized for icing the puck very late in the opening frame, head coach Scott Arniel used a tactic he has already employed a few times this short season.
In fact, Mason Appleton had just completed the same play the past offensive zone face-off.
But this time, with 2.9 seconds left in the frame, he opted to pull Connor Hellebuyck for the extra attacker, while lining up Mark Scheifele below Adam Lowry. The strong center-man got the puck to his red-hot sniper, who potted his fourth of the season and third-straight Jets goal with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock.
“I think with that little of time on the clock, it makes it next to impossible to get the puck down the ice unless you rip it like 300 miles and hours, which I don’t think is happening," Scheifele said of the risk associated with the play. "It comes down to just the amount of time that’s on the clock. But I love it today.”
The arena erupted, as Winnipeg knotted the game up at ones just moments before the horn sounded, ending the frame.
“When the clock ticks down, you want to be a difference maker," he added. "You want the puck in your hands so you can make a difference. That’s like a lot of these guys on this team. They want the puck in their hands and they want to make a difference. I am very lucky to playing with them.”
The teams entered the second period with Winnipeg holding a narrow 9-7 shot lead. But the home team came out firing, and maintained its pressure throughout the middle stanza.
It’s actually something we’ve done for the last few years, we just haven’t executed it quite like that," Arniel said.
"As coaches we’ve all done it, we’ve had players stand on the faceoff dot, start a clock, take a slapshot, get your hardest guy to shoot a slapper, see when it goes in the other net. It’s right around 4 seconds, 3 point something. Usually anything above we don’t. Don’t want it to go the other way. At the end of the day, it’s something Bones implemented, I’ve done it in lots of other places. It was perfect. Low won it real quick, we got a good screen at the net and Scheif got it off quick.”
Unfortunately for the Jets, the gained momentum did not lead to anything on the scoreboard, which remained tied at ones through 40 minutes of play. The best chance of the period belonged to captain Adam Lowry, who was denied in the low slot by Filip Gustavsson on a point-blank opportunity late in the period.
Winnipeg held a 23-17 shot lead heading into the third.
But again, it was a defensive showing from both clubs as the minutes ticked down on the clock. With neither team willing to risk much, the 1-1 tie held through regulation.
Rasmus Kupari took a late high-sticking minor in his own end, but his mates stepped up to kill off the infraction, keeping the game tied.
Former Jet Zach Bogosian took a holding the stick penalty with just five seconds left in regulation, setting the Jets up for a four-on-three power play in overtime.
Connor needed just 51 seconds of the extra frame to pot the game-winner.
He ripped a powerful wrist shot high, short-side, sealing the deal on the Jets' 35-shot output. Hellebuyck turned aside 26 of the 27 shots he faced on the night.
“Yeah. A little bit," Connor said on if he saw an opening where he fired the winner. "Gabe was actually backdoor and I found the goalie leaning, almost respecting that. A little bit of room. I thought, ‘Why not?’”
The Jets continue their four-game homestand on Friday against San Jose, before finishing off the season-opening stretch with an afternoon test against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
