WINNIPEG – It’s now or never for the Winnipeg Jets as they are seeing their playoff chances slowly slip away with their lackluster efforts night after night and Thursday night they faced the Nashville Predators a team they are chasing for the final Wild Card spot .
The Predators have been struggling as of late and are only four points up on the Jets. The Jets didn’t fold as they battled adversity all night and although they blew a three-goal third period lead they pulled out a 5-4 overtime victory to snap their three-game skid.
“We played hard, fought back and got a point,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “Points are important, but in the end we’ve got to get more than one point. We’ve got to get two. We played well enough for two, and it didn’t happen.”
Winnipeg gave up an early goal to Kevin Fiala who scored his first NHL goal on his first NHL shift; he was just recently recalled from Milwaukee Wednesday.
“I think we had pretty good chemistry,” Fiala said of his line. “I really like to play with them.”
The Jets dug deep and got things going in the second period as Dustin Byfuglien decided to take the game into his own hands as he scored on his rebound for his 10th of the season to tie things at 1-1 and get some life back in the building.
A few moments earlier Jets d-man Mark Stuart and Predators forward Paul Gaustad dropped the mitts for a minor tilt with some good punches exchanged.
With James Neal in the box for interference, Blake Wheeler made a gorgeous dish to Bryan Little who buried the shot past Pekka Rinne for his team leading 15th of the year.
“We just had a great feeling in our [dressing] room, a great feeling on our bench,” Wheeler said. “Even 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, I think we still had a good feeling.”
The Jets added another as Byfuglien stole a puck and walked in and scored his second of the game and 11th of the year on a wrap around to put the Jets up 3-1 heading into the third.
Early in the third, Andrew Ladd made a nice chip pass to spring Nikolaj Ehlers who scored his 8th of the year roofing a shot past Rinne on the breakaway . With the Jets up 4-1 Cody Bass of the Predators and Byfuglien got tied up together along the boards and Byfuglien fell hard on his arm and left the game in considerable pain and didn’t return.
After Byfuglien left the game the wheels started to fall off as the Predators gained some momentum as Ryan Johansen scored a power play goal his 8th to bring Nashville to within two at 4-2. Moments later Eric Nystrom scored a flukey one that bounced in off Connor Hellebuyck’s stick his 6th to make it 4-3.
“Being down 4-1, to come back like that on the road on a losing streak, it’s impressive,” Johansen said. “We could have easily thrown in the towel. It’s tough to be upset about this game right now. We wanted two points, but we did a lot of good things.”
After a parade of penalties that even saw a 3-on-3 sequence and some great efforts from Wheeler and Tyler Myers blocking shots it came down to a last minute face off with the net empty and a perfect play from Johansen feeding James Neal who scored his 16th to send this game to overtime .
“I liked [the game] until the tide turned there in the third period,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “I really liked our game. Loved the bench. [We] didn’t fold. That was a great sign. The bench was right. The attitude was right even in adversity.”
Wheeler decided that he was going to end it as he took a nice pass from Little and zipped a wrist shot past Rinne with his 12th goal to give the Jets the 5-4 win.
The Jets will travel to Minnesota for another huge game tomorrow night before heading home again to finish this long home stand.
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