Jets slip past Oilers, 2-1

In Edmonton, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor scored at 6:55 of the third period to snap a 1-1 tie and send the Jets to a 2-1 win over the Oilers on Saturday.

“It was a good win. Any way we can get them, good teams find a way to win, that’s the bottom line,” Connor said. “It may not have been our A game tonight, but the penalty kill was huge (5-for-5) going up against the best power play in the league. Just a lot of unselfish guys back there getting in front of lanes and blocking a lot of shots (20).”

Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves in the Jets win.

“He gives you a chance to win the game at the end, like we did here,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “When you’re clearly half a step behind a lot of the night, your goalie gives you that confidence that we’ll get going eventually. We started to skate better at times, and then when there was a breakdown, he was there for us. The guys have a tremendous amount of confidence in him, and he allows us to just stay in the fight.”

Winnipeg improved to 23-13-1.

Neal Pionk scored in the first period to give the Jets the early 1-0 lead.

“We played the style of game we wanted to, we carried the play most of the game,” Oilers defenseman Tyson Barrie said. “Give them credit, their goalie made some big stops. We had four chances on the power play and don’t get one. That has been a strength of ours all year, and it needed to step up tonight, but we just couldn’t get it done.”

Edmonton dropped to 20-16-2.

Leon Draisaitl missed his second straight game with an injury.

“It showed itself there at the end, with the penalty killers blocking shots,” Bowness said. “Sometimes you just have to take that attitude, that whatever happens out there, we’ll give it our best shot. It was clearly a night we didn’t have our A game, but good teams find a way to win, and tonight, we found a way to win. But that’s two games in a row now where our special teams have won the game for us.”

The Oilers tied it, 1-1, at 4:29 of the third when Klim Kostin  potted a goal.

“I thought our team played a heck of a hockey game tonight. Nobody used any excuse about the time we arrived last night, nobody talked about back-to-back or anything like that,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I thought we asserted our game right off the bat, I think the shots were 9-1 early. We didn’t give up much, I thought we spent most of the game in their end, and in the end, we were unable to solve their penalty kill and their goaltender.”

Jack Campbell made 15 saves in the loss.