WITH 3-2 OT LOSS Jets fall to 1-3-1 in last five games
Just when you think you have it in the bag…
Monday night at Canada Life Centre, the Winnipeg Jets held a 2-1 advantage over the Ottawa Senators with 1:54 left to play in the third period.
That’s when Jake Sanderson scored to tie the game at two and then Brady Tkachuk won it at 2:11 of overtime as the Senators knocked off the Jets 3-2 in front of 13,566 at the downtown rink.
It was an unfortunate loss for the Jets who started slowly, got hot for the final two periods but let it slip away at the end. Once again, a team that has spent multi-millions of dollars on goal scorers, didn’t get enough scoring.
“That’s a game we should have won,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel. “At the end of the day, these are the games you've got to learn to win. We have to find a way, whatever way that is. If that's making the next play so that it gets out of the zone, if that's blocking a shot, whatever it is, those are the things we need to do. We need two points, not one point. We need points bad."
The OT loss dropped the Jets to 15-15-2 on the season, three points out of the final Wild Card spot in the West. The Senators’ victory pushed Ottawa to 15-3-4, four points back of Boston for the final Wild Card berth in the East.
The best player on the ice was Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle who, of course, set up Tkachuk with the overtime winner, a wrist shot from the right circle that went over Connor Hellebuyck’s glove.
After a scoreless first period, Ottawa opened the scoring at 10:47 of the second on a goal by Nick Cousins, but the Jets bounced back later in the period as Neal Pionk scored from Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti at 15:37 to tie it. Connor’s assist extended his point streak to nine games. He has four goals and 13 points in that stretch.
Connor's assist extends points streak to nine (Photo by James Carey Lauder)
The Jets took the lead less than three minutes later when Logan Stanley notched his sixth of the year from Morgan Barron and Gabriel Vilardi at 18:35.
“We did a lot of good things tonight,” said Stanley, who is having a solid season on the Jets blueline. “Their goalie made some great saves. Mistakes are going to happen in a game, and two of them ended up in the back of our net. That’s been a theme for us, but this was a game that I think we should have won.”
Stanley’s goal gave the Jets a 2-1 lead that held up until Stutzle set up Sanderson on a two-on-one with just 1:06 left to play in regulation.
The Senators outshot the Jets 31-25 (4-1 in overtime), but Ottawa had outshot the Jets 17-9 by the time they scored the first goal of the game. Winnipeg played well enough to win down the stretch, but simply couldn’t hold the fort.
Linus Ullmark made 23 saves to record the win while Hellebuyck made 28 stops and took the loss. He’s 1-0-1 since his return from knee surgery. The Jets are a shaky 1-3-1 in their last five (four of them at home).
The Jets play again on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in St. Louis.
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