Slow Start, Brilliant Finish as Jets Win Third Straight

For the second straight night, the Winnipeg Jets found themselves two goals down on the road. And for the second straight night, the Jets came back to win. Blake Wheeler scored his second goal of the season at the 32-second mark of overtime -- after a brilliant play by Pierre-Luc Dubois -- as the Jets came from behind to beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 in front of a lovely NCAA D-1 crowd at Arizona State University's Mullett Arena (hockey capacity 5,000) in Tempe. It was the first game ever played at the Mullett and it was well-populated with Jets fans. On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Jets trailed the Kings 3-1 after the first period and came back to beat LA 6-4. On Friday night, the Jets fell behind 2-0 in the first and came back to beat the Coyotes by a goal to win their third straight game. It was a brilliant play by Dubois at his own blue line in overtime, checking the puck away from Arizona's Shane Gostisbehere, that created a two-on-nothing breakaway with Wheeler. Dubois made a quick move in front of Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka, laid a perfect pass onto the stick of Wheeler and the big right-winger ripped a shot past the Coyotes net minder to notch the OT win. It should have been a lot easier than it was, however. Once they left their airplane-legs behind, the Jets completely dominated the final 50 minutes of the game. After being outshot 9-7 in the first period, the Jets outshot the home side 28-12 the rest of the way. However, a dreadful power play that went zero-for-five and with a snake-bitten offence that has those nights when it gets no puck luck at all, the Jets didn't get the result the earned. Fact is, they should have had seven or eight goals by the end of regulation. But Vejmelka was good and some of the Jets top offensive players were just stymied. Kyle Connor, who has one empty-net goal and four points in eight games this season, had seven shots and five perfect scoring chances and came away empty. Dubois had no goals on four shots while Cole Perfetti scored a goal but should have had at least three on his four shots. Arizona opened the scoring at 10:17 of the first period when Christian Fischer scored his first of the night at 10:17. He made it 2-0 at 15:28 when he fired a wrist shot at Jets goaltender David Rittich that went between his glove and his outstretched pad. It was the first weak goal a Jets net minder has given up in nearly a month. However, the Jets made it 2-1 at 15:54 when Cole Perfetti stole the puck in the Arizona zone and drove to the net to beat Vejmelka with a great move in front. There was no scoring in the second period despite the fact Connor and Dubois had a couple of solid chances. The Jets outshot Arizona 14-9 in the second frame. Despite the power play issues and despite all the squandered chances, the Jets finally tied the game at 8:34 of the third period, when Mark Scheifele jumped on a loose puck in front of Vejmelka and ripped a wrist shot into the corner on the goalie's glove side. It was Scheifele's sixth of the season -- he's scored a goal in three straight games -- as Josh Morrissey and Brenden Dillon drew the assists. The Jets outshot Arizona 13-2 in the third period. Then, early in overtime, Wheeler scored his game winner and the Jets improved to 5-3 on the season. Rittich, despite allowing that weak second goal, had a solid night and recorded his first win as the Jets backup. The Jets outshot Arizona 35-21, while Arizona won every other meaningful statistic proving this time that stats aren't only for losers, they're for teams that barely had control of the puck but you'd have thought they were 6-1 or 7-1 winners. The stat sheet was that weird. Arizona won 59 per cent of the face-offs (59 per cent!!), outhit the Jets 33-18 and were only zero-for-two on the power play. Regardless, the 5-3-0 Jets will head to Las Vegas for a meeting with the Golden Knights on Sunday evening. Just nine days ago, at T-Mobile Arena, Winnipeg fell behind Vegas 4-0 in the first period and battled back to 4-2 before losing 5-2 on the Knights empty-netter. Game time Sunday is 7 p.m. CDT on TSN3.