WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - Tyler Myers could sense his Winnipeg Jets teammates struggling to fight after getting down by two goals to the Washington Capitals.
Then came the pushback: Bryan Little scored to make it a one-goal game midway through the third period and Mark Scheifele supplied his second of the night with 15 seconds left to send it into overtime.
Myers fired the final shot, with the veteran defenseman taking a backhand pass from Scheifele and putting the puck over Braden Holtby’s glove 3:35 into overtime for the 4-3 victory Tuesday night.
“We had moments where we didn’t have much life on the bench, but we managed to flip that switch, get it back going again and I thought it was a great team win,” said Myers, who scored his sixth goal of the season.
Scheifele’s 17th goal with 15 seconds left was scored short-handed and through traffic. Defenseman Dustin Byfuglien had been called for slashing Jay Beagle with 1:17 left.
“It just shows that we battled so hard,” Scheifele said. “We battled right to the end. That was top to bottom, first line to fourth line. It was an awesome feeling.”
Bryan Little scored his 12th for Winnipeg (33-15-9). Byfuglien added two assists.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 shots for the Jets, who were playing the seventh of a 10-game homestand. Niklas Backstrom, Andre Burakovsky and John Carlson scored for the Capitals (32-17-7), who still extended their point streak to four games (2-0-2).
Holtby made 40 saves and became the second goalie in franchise history to play 20,000 minutes. Olaf Kolzig played 41,260 minutes.
“They created their chances but it shouldn’t matter,” Holtby said. “A 3-1 lead and a goal lead with 1:17 on the power play, doesn’t matter what happened in the game before that. I know we had a couple opportunities to put it into the empty net. Just move it around on the power play killing time. We just got a little arrogant, in a way, and tried to make fancy plays. It burned us. We deserved that.”
Byfuglien set up the game’s first goal when he spun around Burakovsky in Washington’s end and sent the puck toward the net. Scheifele poked it in after it bounced off Holtby’s pad at 14:41.
Backstrom tied it up with 23 seconds left in the period off a rebound from an Alex Ovechkin shot.
Burakovsky made up for being outplayed by Byfuglien when he scored the go-ahead goat at 11:22 of the second off a sharp-angled rebound of a Lars Eller shot.
Carlson scored his 10th goal of the season at 7:01 of the third. Evgeny Kuznetsov picked up an assist, extending his team-high point streak to eight games with two goals and nine assists. Little closed the gap at 11:30.
“It’s a hard lesson to learn,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought in this building, this is a pretty hostile building. For 54 minutes we played a really good road game.”
NOTES: Jets center Matt Hendricks left the game in the second after he was crushed to the ice by a check from Washington defenseman, and Winnipeg native, Madison Bowey. …
UP NEXT:
Capitals: play Minnesota on Thursday
Jets: host Colorado on Friday.
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