WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - Leon Draisaitl scored with less than a second left to give the Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night.
As a late Edmonton power play expired, Oilers forward Connor McDavid tried to move the puck around the Winnipeg net. He then passed the puck back to Draisaitl, who fired the puck past Jets goalie Laurent Brossoit with fractions of a second left.
“I thought we had a couple of chances at the end there,” Draisaitl said. “But, obviously, we got a nice fortunate one at the end.”
Brossoit says he couldn’t really track the shot as his teammate, Andrew Copp, slid in front of him to help protect the net.
“I didn’t think he could go five-hole, considering (Copp) was on the ground,” Brossoit said. “So, I was just trying to track the puck up high and it went, obviously, underneath.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Kyle Turris, and Kailer Yamamoto also scored for Edmonton. Mikko Koskinen made 35 saves.
Adam Lowry, Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler scored for the Jets, who had won three straight - all against Ottawa. Brossoit stopped 34 shots.
Winnipeg trailed 2-1 after two periods. However, the Jets scored twice 1:13 apart late in the third to take the lead.
Ehlers tied it with 6:04 left with his fourth goal in four games. The Danish forward has six points in that span.
“I feel good,” Ehlers said. “I think that the last three games I’ve really been able to use my speed in the right moments. I’ve been trying to shoot the puck more.”
Wheeler gave the Jets the lead with a power play goal, thanks to a tripping infraction taken by Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse. Wheeler took a pass along the goal line and banked the puck off Oilers defenseman Kris Russell and past Koskinen into the goal.
Yamamato tied it again with 3:05 remaining, setting the stage for Draisaitl.
For the third consecutive game, the Jets scored first. Lowry scored after taking a pass from Mathieu Perreault while in the slot. He wasted no time to fire on net, beating Koskinen. Lowry’s goal was his third of the season.
The referees overturned a would-be Jets goal nearly three minutes later. Copp deflected a puck above Koskinen and into the back of the net. But the referees determined there was interference after Copp’s stick kept Koskinen’s glove from making the save.
Jets coach Paul Maurice believed Copp’s goal should have stood.
“It’s a goal, I mean, for me,” Maurice said. “I think the puck’s past his glove and I’m not even sure there was contact. (The referees) felt it was close. So, there’s no argument.”
Turris didn’t like the way the Oilers played in the opening period.
“They came out and they had played late last night and they just jumped on us from the start and dominated the period,” he said. “We had to turn it around.”
Nugent-Hopkins tied it fewer than 30 seconds into the second period.
Turris scored his first as an Oiler with 5:42 to play in the period. As Edmonton entered the zone, James Neal passed the puck to Zack Kassian, before he fed the puck to Turris. Turris unloaded a shot into the top right corner of the net to give Edmonton its first lead.
Winnipeg forward Kyle Connor was injured 1:18 later as he defended a shot from Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear. The puck ricocheted off Connor’s stick and into his face, causing him to fall to his knees onto the ice. He left the game and missed the rest of the period, but returned in time for the third.
UP NEXT
The teams meet again at Bell MTS Place on Tuesday night.
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