In Winnipeg, the Jets rallied with a pair of goals in span of 60 seconds in the third period to tie the Edmonton Oilers, 3-3, and force an extra session.
The problem for the Jets was, Zach Hyman hit for his 51st of the season at 1:22 of the extra time for a 4-3 win to the Oilers.
It was the Jets’ fourth straight loss.
“He’s a big-time player for us,” Edmonton’s Connor Brown said of Hyman. “He shows up time and time again in big moments, and we’re lucky to have him.”
Stuart Skinner made 22 saves in the win.
Edmonton moved to 43-23-4, snapping a two-game skid.
The Jets pushed the game to overtime when Brenden Dillon scored at 9:39 to trim the Oilers at the time to 3-2.
Sean Monahan scored one minute later for a 3-3 tie.
“More consistency. It’s not like we’re playing any easy teams here over these last 10 (regular-season games),” Dillon said. “It’s teams that are fighting to get playoff spots or for home ice. I thought especially tonight it was a good effort by us, but at the end of the day we need to get two points out of them.
“We just continue to prove to ourselves throughout this year, through now 72 games, when we’re on our game, when we’re playing the way that we talk about Winnipeg Jet hockey, we’re an elite team. But we’re not doing that when we’re trying to be fancy or letting our foot off the gas.”
After a scoreless opening stanza, Mason Appleton staked the Jets to a 1-0 lead at 4:43 of the middle frame.
“I didn’t like our first 5-7 minutes of the game and probably a three-minute stretch there in the third period where they got the two goals,” Knoblauch said. “Other than that, I thought our team played really well and (was) doing a lot of little things. We had 40-plus shots on net, got a power-play goal and the penalty kill was really solid. So, a lot of things to be happy about.”
Leon Draisaitl knotted the game, 1-1, at 11:46 of the second.
“Coming into this building, we knew they were going to be ready,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They had a road trip where they’d lost three in a row, coming back home, and a very good hockey team. We were prepared for a hard test, and I believe we got a pretty hard test.”
Brown scored from the slot with a wrist shot that put the Oilers up, 2-1, at 13:29 .
“I think we showed a lot of resolve,” Brown said. “(We) just got the job done. It shows a lot about the character of this group.”
The Jets dropped to 44-22-6.
“I think what was good, especially in the first period, we played the way we want to play to our standard, and the second period went the way we shouldn’t play,” Winnipeg’s Nino Niederreiter said. “And I think it definitely showed our team once again, we have to play our way to be successful. Once we feed in someone’s rush game, that doesn’t really work for us.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored off the power at 6:10 of the third period to give the Oilers a 3-1 lead before the Jets rallied.
“I thought they came out hard to start and we did a great job of kind of weathering it,“ Nugent-Hopkins said. “I thought we had a great second period and just played simple and kind of took over there. They’ve got some players that can make plays if you give them too much time. In the third, we’d like to close it out, obviously, but that can happen and it’s how you respond after that, and I thought we did a great job.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves in the loss.
“Just look at the first two periods,” Jets coach Rock Bowness said. “The first period shows you how good we can be and then the second period just shows you how bad we are when we get away from the way we’re supposed to play. Yeah, we got it back in the third, so it was kind of like that. That’s how I assess it then. The first was great, the second was terrible, and the third was even.”

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