Jets upend Ottawa in OT

In Ottawa, Nikolaj Ehlers  scored in extra time to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 win over the Senators on Tuesday night.

“Personally, it’s obviously very nice to not just get one in OT, but get the first of the year,” Ehlers said. “The team, we battled our [backsides] off to stay in the game and get a chance to get the tying goal and give us a point or two.”

It was Elhers’ first NHL over time strike.

“He can be so dangerous, such a dynamic player late in a game,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “Just the speed to get into that hole and make the play that finishes it. We need him. We need him to feel confident and healthy and strong, and when he is, he’s so very dynamic.”

Laurent Brossoit made 38 stops for the Jets’ win.

“The first half of this game, Ottawa came out really, really strong,” Brossoit said. “It seemed like they wanted to take advantage of the fact we had two games in two nights. So we weathered the storm, and once that happened, we started to push, and we have enough veterans and enough skill that it always feels like we have a chance.”

Josh Norris, Chris Tierney and Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Senators.

“We made a lot of young mistakes,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said of the final minutes of the third. “We’re racing around, trying to score rather than defend. That’s a learning lesson tonight. We lose a point and give a valuable point to them. You’ve got to close games out.”

Blake Wheeler forced extra time when he scored with 77 seconds left in regulation.

“We haven’t had the best starts to our games. Obviously, that’s something we’re trying to change,” Ehlers said. “I think we did a lot better today than the first [two] games even though we were behind by two. But it shows that we don’t give up.”

Adam Lowry  and Kyle Connor  also scored for Winnipeg.

“The main thing was just shooting the puck. I haven’t shot the puck at all before tonight,” Norris said. “I had a lot of good scoring chances tonight, and one of the first ones went in. It feels good.”

Matt Murray made 24 saves in the loss.

“Other than not taking care of the puck in the third period and overtime, we had good energy, we had good [offensive] zone time,” Smith said. “We did a lot of good things tonight.”