Down the stretch in the regular season, the Winnipeg Jets had a hard time coming up with wins.
So far, the postseason has been just the opposite.
On Sunday night, the Jets trailed 1-4 in the third period and then reeled off three goals in a span of 3:03 to force extra time.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored his second goal of the game midway through the extra session to give the Jets a 5-4 win and 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers.
“That’s our team. I mean, we don’t give up,” Ehlers said. “We showed a battle at the end, and it paid off.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 44 saves in the win.
“You always dream of scoring these kinds of goals,” Ehlers said. “But for me, tonight, it was a matter of getting out there, play simple and use my speed as much as possible. But you know, this was a team effort. A full, I don’t know how many minutes we played, but a full 70-plus good effort. Great game and it’s exciting.”
Leon Draisaitl struck for two goals for the Oilers as both teams broke out of their offensive doldrums.
“We’re in a good spot obviously, up 4-1,” Edmonton’s Connor McDavid said. “They go on the power play, and we can’t get a kill and kind of gave them a lifeline there, and they took advantage, obviously.
“We’re not going to roll over and play dead on these guys. We’ve got to find a way to get a win tomorrow night and we’ll take it from there.”
Zack Kassian and Jujhar Khaira also scored for the Oilers.
“Four goals in a playoff game should be enough to win the game,” Draisaitl said. “That’s not an issue to score goals. We know how to do it. We’ve done it all year. It’s on the other side of the puck, we obviously have to figure it out.”
Game 4 is a quick turn around on Monday night in Winnipeg.
“Two huge goals, for sure, but also kind of that positivity he brings, that energy,” Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice said. “He’s been off an awfully long time and then to step into playoff hockey, so difficult to do.
“Almost symbolic of the year that he had for us. Nikolaj had a brilliant year here and he’s kept it going. We’re clearly happy to have him back.”
The Jets’ third period rally started with a strike from Mathieu Perreault (power play) to make the score 4-2; that goal was followed by Blake Wheeler and Josh Morrissey to get the game to overtime.
“Our power play stepped up huge,” Wheeler said. “That’s obviously what got us kick-started. Those guys have been so awesome for us most of the year. They scored two big goals for us tonight, none bigger than Matty Perreault’s to get us back in the game.
“I think the biggest takeaway is you need to win another game. Definitely a thrilling game, definitely an exciting game, but we’ve got to start focusing on tomorrow pretty quick here. It’s just too [darn] bad our fans weren’t in the building because that would have been something.”
Mike Smith took the loss on 32 saves.
“Any time you lose a game in the playoffs it stings,” the Oilers’ Darnell Nurse said. “Any time you lose a game in the series it stings, especially this time of the year. Your back’s against the wall the way ours is right now, it doesn’t feel good. But we still have the ability to control our fate here, so we’ve just got to come back tomorrow and play. That’s it.”
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