Hyman scores in OT, Oilers recover to hand Jets 4th straight loss

WINNIPEG -- Zach Hyman scored 1:22 into overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers recovered for a 4-3 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

Hyman drove to the net and scored his 51st of the season after collecting his own rebound. The goal came after Winnipeg scored twice in a 1:00 span to tie it 3-3 midway through the third period.

"He’s a big-time player for us,” Edmonton forward Connor Brown said of Hyman. “He shows up time and time again in big moments, and we’re lucky to have him.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist, Leon Draisaitl scored, and Connor McDavid had two assists for the Oilers (43-23-4), who had lost two in a row. Stuart Skinner made 22 saves.

Edmonton moved three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific Division.

“This game is a game of momentum,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “(When) the momentum swung in their way, I thought we did a good job of settling it down and staying composed on the bench and just go back to doing what we do, and we came up with a win.”

Mason Appleton, Brenden Dillon and Sean Monahan scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 38 saves for the Jets (44-22-6), who have lost four straight. Neal Pionk had two assists.

“I think what was good, especially in the first period, we played the way we want to play to our standard, and the second period went the way we shouldn't play,” Winnipeg forward Nino Niederreiter said. “And I think it definitely showed our team once again, we have to play our way to be successful. Once we feed in someone's rush game, that doesn't really work for us.”

Jets coach Rick Bowness returned after missing the previous four games because of "a minor medical procedure.”

“Coming into this building, we knew they were going to be ready,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They had a road trip where they’d lost three in a row, coming back home, and a very good hockey team. We were prepared for a hard test, and I believe we got a pretty hard test.”

Appleton gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 4:43 of the second period when he scored off the rebound of Kyle Connor’s shot, which came off the toe of Skinner to the net side.

“Just look at the first two periods,” Bowness said. “The first period shows you how good we can be and then the second period just shows you how bad we are when we get away from the way we're supposed to play. Yeah, we got it back in the third, so it was kind of like that. That's how I assess it then. The first was great, the second was terrible, and the third was even."

Edmonton scored twice in the span of 1:43 to take a 2-1 lead in the second period.

“I didn’t like our first 5-7 minutes of the game and probably a three-minute stretch there in the third period where they got the two goals,” Knoblauch said. “Other than that, I thought our team played really well and (was) doing a lot of little things. We had 40-plus shots on net, got a power-play goal and the penalty kill was really solid. So, a lot of things to be happy about.”

Draisaitl tied it 1-1 at 11:46 before Brown put the Oilers ahead 2-1 at 13:29 with a wrist shot from the slot that beat Hellebuyck high glove side.

“I think we showed a lot of resolve,” Brown said. “(We) just got the job done. It shows a lot about the character of this group.”

Nugent-Hopkins extended it to 3-1 on the power play at 6:10 of the third, tapping in McDavid’s centering pass.

“I thought they came out hard to start and we did a great job of kind of weathering it,“ Nugent-Hopkins said. “I thought we had a great second period and just played simple and kind of took over there. They’ve got some players that can make plays if you give them too much time. In the third, we’d like to close it out, obviously, but that can happen and it’s how you respond after that, and I thought we did a great job.”

Dillon cut it to 3-2 on a shot from the point at 9:39, and Monahan tipped Nikolaj Ehlers’ shot through traffic at 10:39 to tie it 3-3.

“More consistency. It's not like we're playing any easy teams here over these last 10 (regular-season games),” Dillon said. “It's teams that are fighting to get playoff spots or for home ice. I thought especially tonight it was a good effort by us, but at the end of the day we need to get two points out of them.

“We just continue to prove to ourselves throughout this year, through now 72 games, when we're on our game, when we’re playing the way that we talk about Winnipeg Jet hockey, we're an elite team. But we're not doing that when we're trying to be fancy or letting our foot off the gas.”

NOTES: Hyman has five goals during a four-game goal streak. … McDavid has 13 points (one goal, 12 assists) during a five-game point streak. … Draisaitl has seven points (five goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak. … Edmonton forward Adam Henrique played his 900th NHL game.