WINNIPEG 鈥� Rick Bowness wasn鈥檛 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.
鈥淯p to that point, they (Carolina) got nothing,鈥� Bowness said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l focus on the really good 55 minutes we played, we鈥檒l figure out what we could鈥檝e done better in the last couple. Give our guys credit, perseverance, you stay in the fight.鈥�
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.
鈥淏efore we hopped on to start overtime, Mikey Eyssimont and Dylan Samberg were saying, 鈥楲et's go boys, let's get this one.鈥欌�� Morrissey said. 鈥淭wo young guys with not that many games experience, so that kind of shows the calm on our bench.
鈥淥bviously we don't want to be in that situation, but from older players, coaches, to guys with a handful of games, we never wavered.鈥�
David Rittich made 24 saves in his fourth start for Winnipeg. He鈥檚 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.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a crazy game, No. 1. You just never know,鈥� Carolina head coach Rod Brind鈥橝mour said. 鈥淏ut I loved how, we were out of that game in the third and then they just kind of dug in and just said, 鈥楲et鈥檚 go.鈥� I give the guys credit for not giving up.鈥�
Brind鈥橝mour said they 鈥渉ad nothing to lose鈥� in pulling Kochetkov earlier than normal.
鈥淚n this game, it didn鈥檛 matter,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e talked about it at the eight-minute timeout. I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 we just try something crazy because this game is kind of flat for us.鈥� But we decided to wait a little longer.鈥�
Kochetkov made his first consecutive start in net for Carolina and stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.
Necas liked their coach鈥檚 decision to go for it.
鈥淚f you look at it with five minutes left in the period and you鈥檙e losing 3-0 and you still get a point from the game, it鈥檚 pretty good for us,鈥� Necas said. 鈥淏ut we could have done better.鈥�
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鈥檚 breakaway. Gustafsson鈥檚 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鈥� 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). 鈥� Winnipeg defenceman Ville Heinola made his season debut 鈥� Carolina forward Paul Statsny got big cheers from the crowd when he was shown in the visitors鈥� 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.聽
Hurricanes: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.聽
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2022.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
