“He’s a pretty good goalie," Wild forward Mikael Granlund joked post-game. "Like we saw tonight, he gave us the chance to win the hockey game. The saves he made... Obviously, it’s disappointing we didn’t get the two points for Juice with the way he played tonight.”
Nashville opened the scoring 9:04 into the game, with each member of its top line picking up points on Filip Forsberg’s ninth of the season. After picking the puck up off the stick of Ryan Johansen, Mikael Granlund got it over to Forsberg, who put a knuckler past Connor Hellebuyck, low.
It took until a two-minute timespan of four-on-four action for the Jets to respond. And it was the unlikeliest of goal scorers who delivered. Moments after Kyle Connor hammered one off the post, a diving Dylan DeMelo tapped in his first of the season, bringing the crowd to its feet with a response with 4:36 to play.
The goal was DeMelo’s second marker as a Jet in 163 games and his ninth career goal in 422 games played.
Later in the period, sophomore forward Tanner Jeannot caught defenceman Nate Schmidt up high, sending him to the ice, and hard. He needed assistance from the team trainer and was helped off the ice.
Adam Lowry responded with a spirited centre-ice tilt against Jeannot on the ensuing faceoff.
"It’s one of those things though, where you have to let the guys know you’re gonna stick together and it’s gonna be a physical game," Lowry said. "Some guys are gonna answer the bell, Central Division, you’re trying to set the tone and maybe got the building going a little bit and it carried on from there."
With Winnipeg outshooting the Predators 10-6 in the opening frame, the second period didn’t actually provide any additional goals, but Winnipeg maintained its heavy lead in the shot chart, piling on another 19, compared to Nashville’s eight.
Although given three power play opportunities in the frame, the Jets were unable to beat Juuse Saros, who stood tall in the Preds’ crease. Winnipeg did manage to kill off a four-minute, high-sticking double minor by Jansen Harkins, but again, neither team could find a way to add to the lead.
The Jets then lost Blake Wheeler in the middle stanza after being struck in the groin with a long-range Josh Morrissey shot. Lowry filled in on the bumper during the power plays to which Wheeler was unavailable.
With neither team finding a way to score for the second-straight period, the game needed an extra five minutes - or 3:31 to be exact - until a winner could be determined. The Jets led the shot charts 39-25 through 60 minutes of play.
Entering the overtime period 6-1 on the season in games needing extra time, Winnipeg bested its overtime record in a short period dominated by the home team.
"You just say, "Stay with it. We're doing a lot of great things," coach Bowness said of the game plan, despite the lack of scoring. "The players know they're getting all of these Grade A's and getting good shots and getting good looks. Just stay with it, don't get frustrated. Just keep doing what we're doing. It's working."
Josh Morrissey came within half an inch of his third overtime-winner of the season, nailing the crossbar on a breakaway a minute-and-a-half in.
But it was ultimately Kyle Connor who won it for the Jets with 1:29 remaining. Connor picked up a drop pass from Lowry before sneaking it through Saros for the 2-1 win.
“When you go to overtime, you always want to get those two points," Mikael Granlund said. "It’s disappointing but at the same time, we got something out of this game and we’ve got to live with that.”
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