In St Paul, the Winnipeg Jets let a 5-3 lead in the third period slip away on Tuesday and then promptly lost in overtime to the Minnesota Wild, 6-5, in the extra session.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored the tying goal in the third period to get the score to 5-5 and force the extra session.
In the overtime, Eriksson Ek popped in the game winner to complete his first NHL hat trick.
“They got a 2-on-1 there, and ‘Talbs’ came up with a huge save for us,” Eriksson Ek said. “We knew they were shorthanded, and two guys were caught up high, and we’re just trying to go that way as quickly as possible, and [Fiala] and [Kaprizov] set me up really well on the backdoor. Just trying to get there and get open.”
Cam Talbot made 25 saves for the wild win.
Kyle Connor struck for two goals for the Jets and had three points on the night.
“That’s a tough way to lose a hockey game, when we’ve got a two-goal lead there in the third, but like you said, we’ve got to take some positives away from it,” Connor said. “It was an emotional game with a lot of good things.”
Andrew Copp and Pierre-Luc DuBois also scored for Winnipeg.
“I thought we did more action around the net and to the net, shots off the rush, lots of confidence shooting the puck tonight,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said.
Mats Zuccarello had a pair of goals for the Wild and added two assists to the sheet.
Josh Morrissey added a single marker for the Jets.
Trailing 3-5 in the third period, Marcus Foligno got eh rally started to cut the deficit to 4-5.
“We wanted to win the first one at home and give our fans something to cheer about because it’s been a long time without them,” Foligno said. “Nothing better than picking right back up with a rivalry with Winnipeg. They’re always a good team and they’ve got a lot of good players. They’re trying to play physical. They haven’t had two great games … so it was important to match their intensity and that’s what you get. It’s a lot of fun these games playing against rivals, and it’s just nice to have that back.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves in the loss.
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