Hellebuyck had 31 saves, Skinner had 46, and yet Hellebuyck wouldn't call it a goaltender's duel.
"I don't think it was just a goaltender battle and I think every person on both teams was playing well," Hellebuyck said. "It almost had that playoff feel to it and it was a grinder. Two good teams going at it."
Winnipeg's best chance to pull ahead came in the final minute of regulation and into overtime, as McDavid was assessed a four-minute double minor for high-sticking Mark Scheifele.
But Edmonton's fifth ranked penalty kill held it down for the final 44 seconds of regulation and 3:16 of overtime.
Overall the Jets went 0-for-5 on the man advantage, even as they turned up the pressure in overtime during an extended four-on-three look.
"They got a pretty good faceoff guy there in Draisaitl. He's got to be up there in the league," said Kyle Connor. "So it definitely starts with the faceoff, if you get possession your chances of scoring is way higher. And for us, I think we had our looks. We had a couple plays to the slot, some good chances, around the net but it's just one of those nights where it didn't go for us."
The Jets power play was ranked ninth in the NHL coming into the game, and clicked in the 5-2 win over Edmonton earlier this week.
So not coming through on Thursday night stings, but Maurice doesn't want them to dwell on it.
"There's pain in there. We had some good chances, right? But no part of that game was sloppy or casual," Maurice said. "I thought we probably held onto it a little longer than we needed to on a few of those power-play chances we had but still got some good pucks to the net. I liked our penalty kill an awful lot. So they're a good killing team, right up there."
With no score through 40 minutes, the Jets finally broke through with 6:03 left in the third.
Ehlers pounded a one-timer off a drop pass from Scheifele into the top corner. That was the fifth goal of the season for Ehlers, which finally helped the Jets break through offensively.
Connor picked up the secondary assist on the play to extend his point streak to five games.
That lead only lasted 28 seconds, as McDavid threaded his way through the Jets defence and beat Hellebuyck on the stick side to pull the home side even. The goal extended McDavid's point streak to 15 games.
It was also the lone goal the Jets gave up against Edmonton at five-on-five in the two games this week.
"That's well played," said Maurice. "It's one of those games that if you put it in our building, you would think we played one hell of a game because everything that was close, the crowd goes nuts. It's a little quiet here when we do that. That's part of being on the road. It may be my favourite game of the year."
There is a lot of confidence for the Jets to gain from the two games this week.
"We learned that we like that type of game, 0-0, we're comfortable in that situation," said Connor. "No matter what type of game it is, we have the scoring power to win a game 6-5 or to take it to overtime. Unfortunately it didn't go our way tonight but we can for sure take away some positives."
Winnipeg outshot Edmonton 8-1 in the overtime, but when it got to the shootout, Skinner turned away shots from Connor and Scheifele. McDavid and Kyle Turris scored for the Oilers to give them the victory.
The Jets, with points in 12 of their last 13, now fly to Vancouver to close out the road trip where Eric Comrie will get the start in goal.
"I thought we've seen a lot of growth in our team in our last two games and I'm not couching this," Maurice said. "Tomorrow is going to be the toughest one of this three because we spent something here in these last two games. It will be a good battle tomorrow."
