The Winnipeg Jets are certainly enjoying playing more hockey these days.
For the fourth straight game, the Jets couldn't decide things in regulation, but this time they came out on the right side of the 3-on-3 game, coming from behind late to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in overtime Tuesday at the Canada Life Center.
After struggling to generate chances for much of the first two periods, Cole Perfetti tied the score with the goaltender pulled with 39 seconds left, and Mark Scheifele won the game in the extra period to give the Jets two well-deserved points.
It was Scheifele's third point of the night after recording the first assist on his first two goals.
After consecutive overtime losses, the Jets now have at least one point in all four games since the Olympic break.
“Every game, we’re fighting for our lives at this point,” Perfetti said. “And no team is going to let us. So, there will be games where we are ahead, where we are at the bottom. Ties at the end of the game, we have to make sure there is no stoppage.
“This fight has to be there all the time.”
Dylan Samberg scored the Jets' only other goal.
The Hawks took their first lead just 32 seconds into the final period, but Winnipeg outshot the Blackhawks 15-1 over the final 14 minutes of the third.
“We didn't do a very good job in the first two periods of getting through the neutral zone and if we did, we didn't have the numbers and we didn't have the speed to get in on the forecheck,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said. “They got out of their zone really quickly. And I just thought we did a much better job in the third. We came in, we got heavy and we won some puck battles.
“I liked how each line kept coming out and rolling one after the other and it kind of kept the wave after them and it looked like they were tiring them out a little bit.”
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The game marked the start of their longest homestand of the season with eight straight home games, including six against Western Conference opponents.
It was just the Jets' third overtime victory of the season, as they are now 4-10 in games that last more than 60 minutes.
The win leaves the Jets nine points out of a playoff spot with 22 games remaining and even though it's just an outside chance, they still believe a playoff spot is achievable.
“We have a group of veterans,” Arniel said. “So there's a lot of guys that maybe have been in this situation before or experienced this. I think we've seen it across the league in other years. Like I said this morning, you have to mind your own business and you just try to let everything fall into place.
“I can’t believe I’m sitting with twenty games left and watching every score and seeing what happens.”
Chicago got the first power play of the game just 2:57 into the game, but it didn't last long. The Jets won the ensuing faceoff and started Cole Koepke on a partial breakaway where he took a holding penalty, setting up 1:47 of 4-on-4 hockey.
It was during this play that Winnipeg opened the scoring with an unlikely source getting the job done.
Kyle Connor carried the puck into the Chicago zone before double-teaming and dropping it to Scheifele. He spotted Samberg breaking free at the opposite faceoff spot and sent him a pass.
Samberg took a moment to recover before firing a shot past Spencer Knight for his first of the season and his first since March 16 of last year.
Winnipeg held that lead for most of the period, but things changed when Gabriel Vilardi was given a double minor for high sticking with 2:06 left in the first period.
The Blackhawks moved the puck around the Jets zone before Frank Nazar put it in the corner. He skated toward center ice before noticing Teuvo Teravainen wide open in the slot. Nazar fed him the puck and Teravainen made no mistake, firing a shot past Connor Hellebuyck to tie the score with 1:12 left in the first.
Winnipeg outshot Chicago 6-4 in the first period and managed to kill off the remainder of Vilardi's penalty to start the second.
Chicago had a great chance to take the lead nine minutes into the second half when Ilya Mikheyev got loose on a partial breakaway, but he was pushed away by Hellebuyck.
Other than that, not much happened in the middle management. Chicago outscored the Jets 10-7, but almost every shot was safe, although Scheifele hit a goal post.
The score remained 1-1 on the scoreboard until the third game, but it only took 32 seconds for the Blackhawks to take the lead for the first time.
Sam Rinzel threw the puck into the Jets zone from center ice, sending it around the boards. Hellebuyck tried to cut it behind the net, but missed, allowing Connor Bedard to reach it in the corner. He dropped it to Ryan Greene at the faceoff dot, who wired it past Hellebuyck to make it 2-1.
The Jets got their first real power play chance of the game at 3:07 of the third period when Bédard was called for hooking, but Winnipeg couldn't do much with Chicago.
After generating virtually no offense in the first 45 minutes of the game, the Jets began to increase the pressure in the final half of the third as they looked to tie the game, intensifying further when they pulled Hellebuyck for an extra attacker with 90 seconds remaining.
Chicago survived a huge scramble in the crease in the final minute but, after the ensuing faceoff, Perfetti took a pass from Scheifele at the faceoff dot and beat Knight with a low shot with 39.6 on the clock to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The teams exchanged chances in the first two minutes before the decisive moment arrived.
Winnipeg had the puck in the offensive zone before a turnover almost turned into a disaster. But as Greene was about to send a wide-ice pass to Artyom Levshunov, Samberg knocked the puck away, collected it and sent it across the ice where Scheifele had charged into the zone after coming off the bench.
He skated into the slot before burying a wrist shot past Knight to finish the night with his 28th goal of the season and 18th career overtime winner.
Thanks to some domination late in the game, the Jets ended up surpassing the Hawks 32-20.
Winnipeg will play its final game before the trade deadline on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Puck drop will fall just after 7 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB beginning just after 5 p.m.
