WINNIPEG — Rick Bowness wasn’t going to dump on the Winnipeg Jets after they overcame a late surge by the Carolina Hurricanes and skated off with a 4-3 overtime victory on Monday.
Defenceman Josh Morrissey scored once in regulation and added the winner on a breakaway 2:10 into overtime.
The Jets were ahead 3-0 when the Hurricanes scored three goals in the final 4:48 of the third period after pulling goalie Pyotr Kochetkov for the extra attacker with about 5:30 remaining.
“Up to that point, they (Carolina) got nothing,” Bowness said. “We’ll focus on the really good 55 minutes we played, we’ll figure out what we could’ve done better in the last couple. Give our guys credit, perseverance, you stay in the fight.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and two assists and Michael Eyssimont, with his first NHL goal, also scored for the Jets (11-5-1), who are 7-2-0 at Canada Life Centre this season. Blake Wheeler collected a pair of assists.
“Before we hopped on to start overtime, Mikey Eyssimont and Dylan Samberg were saying, ‘Let's go boys, let's get this one.’” Morrissey said. “Two young guys with not that many games experience, so that kind of shows the calm on our bench.
“Obviously we don't want to be in that situation, but from older players, coaches, to guys with a handful of games, we never wavered.”
David Rittich made 24 saves in his fourth start for Winnipeg. He’s now won his last three starts.
Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas scored for the Hurricanes (10-5-4), who are on a four-game point streak (1-0-3) and lost for the third straight game in overtime. Sebastian Aho recorded three assists.
“It’s a crazy game, No. 1. You just never know,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But I loved how, we were out of that game in the third and then they just kind of dug in and just said, ‘Let’s go.’ I give the guys credit for not giving up.”
Brind’Amour said they “had nothing to lose” in pulling Kochetkov earlier than normal.
“In this game, it didn’t matter,” he said. “We talked about it at the eight-minute timeout. I’m like, ‘Why don’t we just try something crazy because this game is kind of flat for us.’ But we decided to wait a little longer.”
Kochetkov made his first consecutive start in net for Carolina and stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.
Necas liked their coach’s decision to go for it.
“If you look at it with five minutes left in the period and you’re losing 3-0 and you still get a point from the game, it’s pretty good for us,” Necas said. “But we could have done better.”
Dubois opened the scoring with 1:26 remaining in the first period after he was sprung by a long pass from Wheeler. Dubois went in alone on Kochetkov and beat him with a low shot.
Eyssimont made it 2-0 at 6:44 of the second after the Colorado native capitalized on teammate David Gustafsson’s breakaway. Gustafsson’s shot bounced off Kochetkov and Eyssimont got the rebound and notched his notable goal in his fourth NHL career game.
Morrissey made it 3-0 at 3:56 of the third.
The Hurricanes’ trio of goals were scored in a span of 4:09.
Slavin scored with the extra attacker at 15:12, Svechnikov added his tipped-in goal at 16:52 and Necas notched his at 19:21.
NOTES
Winnipeg forward Cole Perfetti picked up an assist. Heading into the game, he was tied for sixth in NHL rookie scoring with eight points in 16 games. He now has nine in 17 games (three goals, six assists). … Winnipeg defenceman Ville Heinola made his season debut … Carolina forward Paul Statsny got big cheers from the crowd when he was shown in the visitors’ bench. Statsny played 146 regular-season games for the Jets before signing with the Hurricanes in the off-season.
UP NEXT
Jets: Embark on a three-game road trip, starting Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild.
Hurricanes: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2022.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
