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The Winnipeg Jets keep finding ways to win.
After blowing a two-goal lead in the third period, Nikolaj Ehlers scored in overtime to lift the Jets to a 4-3 win in Seattle Thursday night, their seventh straight win to start the season.
The Jets took a two-goal lead in the final frame, but the Kraken stormed back with a pair of markers in the final nine minutes to send the game to OT where Ehlers notched the game winner for their third overtime victory of the season.
“We found a way to win and that’s the most important thing, But it wasn’t our best.” said Jets forward Nino Niederreiter. “We didn’t do a lot of great things tonight, but we still found a way, and that makes things special.”
Niederreiter scored twice for Winnipeg to give him a three-game goal streak. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor each had two assists as Connor extended his point streak to seven games. The franchise record point streak to start a season is eight games held by Blake Wheeler from 2015.
The Jets were outplayed in the first period, getting outshot 12-7 but found another gear in the second period.
“I think just the way they started in the first period kinda caught us off, honestly,” said Gabriel Vilardi who notched his first goal of the season in the win. “They’re really fast and just kinda pushing the puck up in the neutral zone and going from there. And we weren’t really playing well against that. And kinda made some adjustments in that first intermission. I thought we played much better against their style of play.”
The Jets have given up the first goal of the game in five of their last six contests but continue to find a way to come out on top.
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“I think both coaches might be tossing that one away,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “It was sloppy both ways.
“We weren’t very good in the first. We were a lot better in the second. Third, we did everything we need to do kinda and then made a couple mistakes and it was in the back of our net. But at the end of the day, like I’ve said before, it’s two points, it’s on the road, move on, we’ll move to the next one.”
With the win, the Jets become the 17th team in NHL history to start a season with seven consecutive wins. It’s also their 15th straight regular season victory dating back to last season, two shy of the league record.
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After a stretch of almost six minutes without a whistle, Matty Beniers opened the scoring with his first of the season, ripping a shot up high past Connor Hellebuyck in transition at the 11:27 mark.
Seattle pushed to get another goal on the board, earning the game’s first power play, but the Jets killed it off and kept it a one-goal game after 20 minutes.
Winnipeg got on the board just 3:56 into the second period when a Mason Appleton shot was stopped by Joey Daccord but the rebound ricocheted off the chest of Niederreiter and trickled over the goal line.
Seattle thought they had regained the lead just over seven minutes into the period but a Jets challenge overturned the goal because of goalie interference.
With just under five minutes to go in the second, the Jets took their first lead of the night. Connor made a great play to keep the puck in at the Seattle blue line and Scheifele came and collected it before firing it down low to Vilardi. He drove the puck in front of the net and tucked it past Daccord.
Winnipeg took that 2-1 lead into the third period and extended it to 3-1 at the 4:21 mark when Niederreiter potted his second of the night moments after the Kraken killed off a Winnipeg power play.
The Jets seemed set to cruise to the win but the Kraken had other ideas. With just under nine minutes left, a broken play in the Winnipeg end led to three Jets flocking to Jared McCann, but that left Jordan Eberle alone in front of the net. McCann fed the Kraken captain who then buried it through Hellebuyck to make it 3-2.
Beniers tied it with 3:22 to go when he tipped a Brandon Montour point shot past Hellebuyck, sending the game to overtime.
With a delayed penalty pending in OT, Ehlers came off the bench, skated into the Seattle end and got a pass from Scheifele that he fired on goal. Daccord got most of it but the puck squeaked through his body and trickled just over the goal line to give the Jets the win.
The Jets will look to make it eight wins in a row Saturday night when they visit the Calgary Flames to close out the road trip.
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