Mike Smith made 39 saves for the Oilers.
"We have so much confidence in him and (goalie) Mikko [Koskinen], and tonight showed why," Nugent-Hopkins said. "He's a competitive guy and he's a really good athlete. He's good positionally, but those extra-effort saves, he can get there because he's so athletic. He just wants to win and compete, and that makes you want to compete in front of him."
Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for Winnipeg (33-28-6), which is tied with the Nashville Predators and Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
"It doesn't matter how you play, you've got to get results this time of year," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. "We're in a position where we're tied with five minutes left in the game, we can't leave with zero [points]. You just can't do it."
Draisaitl scored on the power play with a one-timer from the right circle to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 6:27 of the first period. It is the second straight season he reached 100 points.
Logan Shaw tied it 1-1 at 13:23 of the second when he went in alone on Smith off a pass from Nicholas Shore and scored on a wrist shot.
Kyle Connor made it 2-1 34 seconds later when he scored with a one-timer at 13:57 off a pass from Wheeler.
"We played a pretty good game. Everybody was battling, it was a full team effort," Connor said. "Everybody was blocking shots, we got scoring from depth players, and it's too bad we couldn't come out with at least a point there."
Draisaitl tied it 2-2 on the power play with 13 seconds left in the period when he redirected a pass from McDavid. It was his 39th goal.
Winnipeg outshot Edmonton 33-14 in the second and third periods.
"That's the painful part of this one; we played a [heck] of a game," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "On any given night, that's a fine, fine game. It's nine [games] in 16 [days] for us, with a couple of time-zone changes; to play as hard as we did tonight and then lose, that's a painful one."
