Jets Lead Oilers 3-0

WINNIPEG - It seems like a little line-up tinkering is okay after all.

Nikolaj Ehlers returned to the Jets last night and scored 2 goals including the game winner in overtime as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 and now take a commanding 3-0 series lead into tonight’s game 4 at Bell MTS Place.

Edmonton came out flying and took an early 2-0 lead getting both of those first period goals from Leon Draisaitl. Ehlers cut that lead in half early in the second period, but Edmonton roared back with a goal from Zack Kassian. The Oilers then added to their lead early in the third period with a goal from Jujhar Khaira and coasted into the last 10 minutes of the game with a 4-1 lead. Edmonton’s Josh Archibald then took a needless penalty at 11:11 basically clipping Logan Stanley and Winnipeg capitalized on the ensuing power play with a goal from Mathieu Perreault. The momentum completely changed after that and the Jets swarmed Mike Smith leading to goals by Blake Wheeler and Josh Morrissey sending the game to overtime where Ehlers took the puck after a face off win by Paul Stastny and blasted it by the stunned Oilers netminder.

It was a complete team effort. The Jets started slow in the first period but fought back hard. Edmonton peppered Connor Hellebuyck with 48 shots and despite being beat 4 times, came up with some phenomenal saves including 7 in overtime.

Edmonton played an excellent game as well, and you have to give a lot of credit to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid had 3 assists, and Draisaitl added an assist to his 2 goals but their toughest 10 minutes of the night were at the post game press conference where they had to face a barrage of “what went wrong” questions from an angry Edmonton media. The two stars looked like they would rather be in a dentist chair than listening to some ridiculous questions.

Game 4 goes tonight at 8:45pm.