Ehlers hits the OT winner as the Jets maintain their perfect start

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After a brief moment of shock, the Winnipeg Jets’ unbeaten streak will live to see another day.

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Nikolaj Ehlers scored his third goal of the season and extended his point streak to four games. 1:24 in overtime to defeat the Seattle Kranen 4-3 on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena.

Ehlers entered the ice as an extra attacker after a late call-up by Neal Pionk, replacing Kyle Connor as the Jets moved to 7-0-0 to start the season.

“It was a great shot,” Nino Niederreiter told reporters in Seattle. “We knew once he got the shot, it went in. That was great. But… we didn’t do a lot of great things tonight, but we still found a way and that’s what makes this special.”

Niederreiter extended his scoring streak to three games, scoring twice, and Gabriel Vilardi scored his first goal of the season for Winnipeg.

“It definitely felt good,” Vilardi said. “It felt better that we got the win in the end.”

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Mark Scheifele had two assists and Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk extended their respective point streaks to seven and four games, respectively.

Connor Hellebuyck’s unbeaten streak stretched to six games (6-0-0) after 29 stops as his bid to defend his Vezina Trophy grows stronger early on.

It may have been perfect, but head coach Scott Arniel wasn’t happy about his team’s recent performance.

“I think both coaches might throw this away,” Arniel said. “It was sloppy both ways. I don’t want to be disrespectful to (Kraken head coach Dan Bylsma) and his team. I just thought the whole game was just… we weren’t very good in the first game. Much better in the second. The third time we did everything we had to do and then we made a few mistakes and that’s our goal.

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“It’s two points, it’s on the street. We’ll move on to the next one.”

Niederreiter canceled out Matty Beniers’ first-period goal to tie the game in the second period, then scored his fourth goal of the year in the third period to somewhat secure Winnipeg’s recent victory.

Vilardi scored his first goal of the season, while Kyle Connor extended his point streak to seven games and Pionk extended his own to four games.

Beniers threw a quick attack to Hellebuyck and opened the scoring at 11:27 in a rather sluggish first frame for the visiting Jets, who fell behind 12-7 in the 20th minute.

The second was a different story.

Niederreiter’s first goal of the game came when he crashed hard into the goal area after 3:56 minutes.

“We finally got the puck behind her D and got her to pivot, get some luck and get some good jump shots,” Niederreiter said.

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Vilardi got the monkey off his back when he skated out in front of Joey Daccord, let him slide past his left pad and scored the go-ahead score at 3:05 p.m.

Connor’s final work just before the goal helped keep the puck in the zone and led directly to the goal.

“Just a good track from KC,” Vilardi said. “It makes all the guys on their team fly out of the zone and that gives me more space down there. I just brought it to the net and was able to score.”

Niederreiter’s second goal came just seconds after the end of Winnipeg’s only power play of the game, with Cole Perfetti providing a great assist as he showed his vision in selecting the Swiss-born player.

“It was a beautiful sight,” said Niederreiter. “As soon as I saw him knock his guy off the wall there, I spotted the open space, he found me and I was lucky he went in.”

Jordan Eberle’s goal with nine minutes left sparked a comeback attempt that Beniers completed with his second goal of the night at 16:38, sending the game into overtime.

Winnipeg ends its three-game road trip with a date at the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.

scott.billeck@kleinmedia.ca

X: @scottbilleck

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