Cole Perfetti scored at 1:37 of overtime, enabling the Winnipeg Jets win their first game back from the Olympic break, a 3-2 victory against the host Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
Gabriel Vilardi and Kyle Connor had a goal apiece, Mark Scheifele logged two assists and Eric Comrie made 21 saves for Winnipeg, which won for just the third time in the past eight games (3-3-2).
The Jets gave up goals early in the first two periods but rallied back each time and carried the play for most of the contest.
In overtime, Adam Lowry tried a pass to the front of the net that Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo got a piece of. It deflected right to Perfetti, who fired it home.
Evander Kane and Drew O’Connor scored goals and Tolopilo made 25 saves for last-place Vancouver, which lost its fourth straight game (0-2-2).
O’Connor scored on the Canucks’ first shot of the game just two minutes in. Brock Boeser reached high to keep the puck in at the blue line, sliding it over to O’Connor, who scored through Comrie’s legs.
Connor tied the game 1-1 at 11:42 of the first as Winnipeg’s two leading scorers combined to get the Jets on the board. Scheifele looked as if he would carry the puck behind the net but slipped a no-look pass back to Connor, who beat Tolopilo on the short side.
Kane fired in a wrist shot 38 seconds into the second period from the top of the faceoff circle after Elias Pettersson won the draw back to him.
Vilardi scored from the front of the net late in the second to tie it 2-2. He drove to the far post and Scheifele’s pass deflected off Vilardi’s leg into the net at 18:45.
Both teams were missing key players. The Jets were without defenseman Josh Morrissey, who sustained an injury at the Olympics, and forward Nino Niederreiter. Gold-medal-winning U.S. goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did not make it back in time to play Wednesday, but he is expected to rejoin the team for its next game, Friday in Anaheim.
The Canucks didn’t have defenseman Tyler Myers, who reportedly is being shopped by the team ahead of the March 6 trade deadline.
–Field Level Media
