WINNIPEG – This had to be one of the strangest games all season as the Edmonton Oilers were in to face the Winnipeg Jets; two teams going in different directions, the Jets, right in the thick of the playoff race and battling for position, and the Oilers just 
battling for last overall in the league.
Although this game was pretty one-sided when it came to offensive zone time and shots the pesky young Oilers refused to go away and capitalized on their few chances to steal one point and lose 5-4 in a shootout to the Jets.
“Obviously we’re missing some pieces and scoring touch and whatnot, but we found a way to pick it up tonight,” the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “When you get down a couple of guys, you’ve got to fight even harder, and I thought we did a great job of that tonight. We’ve shown a bit of that on this road trip. We’ve got to keep the same mentality and same work ethic when we go back home.”
Michael Hutchinson got his 2nd start in a row and made 18 saves off 22 shots but stopped all three shooters he faced in the shootout. He improves to 17-7-3 on the season.
Oilers counted with Viktor Fasth in goal and he was brilliant kicking out 42 saves off 46 Jets shots. He ended up having to leave the game in the shootout after an unreal dangle by Blake Wheeler left him in a heap with a lower body injury.
“I don’t know [whether] it was harder [than expected],” Ladd said. “It went down to the wire a little more than we wanted it to. We did a lot of good things. We created a lot. You’ve got to give them credit. Their goalie played well, and when they got their opportunities, they put the puck in the net.
“We were able to keep with it, keep battling and find a way to get two points. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. It shows how resilient we are and composed, more than anything.”
Winnipeg got goals from Bryan Little who sniped his 22nd, 23rd goals of the season, Tyler Myers with his 5th of the season (1st as a Jet), Andrew Ladd with his 20th.
“It was just one of those nights,” Little said. “I felt good. My legs felt good, and I was getting a ton of chances.”
Oilers got goals from Nail Yakupov his 7th, 8th of the year, Anton Lander his 4th, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins his 15th of the season.
“It was definitely one of his better games,” Oilers coach Todd Nelson said of Yakupov. “He was skating well tonight, and I think that once he got his first goal, he felt confident. He’s moving in the right direction.”
This game had everything it had some beauty goals, a lot of speed, some thunderous hitting, including Dustin Byfuglien’s thundering boom on Oiler tough guy Luke Gazdic who left the game with a chin injury.
There was also an epic heavyweight fight between Gazdic and Jets tough guy Anthony Peluso which is probably the scrap of the season in which even the fans in the upper deck could feel the blows! There were also the two leads the Jets battled back to tie and later on win and get a much needed two points.
The Jets lost a couple of key forwards during the game as Mathieu Perreault left the game in the first period with a lower body injury and Drew Stafford left in the second with an upper body injury, no word on the extent of both injuries.
“We’ll have a better handle late [on Tuesday],” Jets coach Paul Maurice said.
Newly acquired Tyler Myers had another solid game for the Jets as he was named the games third star and received the team’s fighter pilot helmet for player of the game from the team and he said “I’m so excited to be part of this group.
The Jets will head out on the road for a two game trip starting in Washington Thursday.
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