GAME RECAP: Jets 3, Oilers 2 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele redirected the game-winning goal over the left pad of netminder Stuart Skinner at 1:07 of overtime to claim the extra point in a 3-2 defeat for the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Hockey Night in Canada.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each extended their respective league-leading home point streaks to 21 and 17 games with a pair of assists in the opening period, while Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard became the first pair of Oilers blueliners since April 4, 2022 (Kris Russell and Cody Ceci) to score consecutive goals to open a game after opening the scoring to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.

Defenceman Josh Morrissey and centre Vladislav Namestikov got Winnipeg's goals back midway through the first period and in the final two minutes of the middle frame – once on the power play and another shorthanded – before Scheifele lifted the visitors to victory in three-on-three overtime after McDavid was kept on the bench for the entire sudden-death period due to injury.

The Oilers were forced into juggling their regular three-on-three setup after McDavid was kept on the bench for the entire overtime, with the captain speaking with Head Athletic Therapist T.D. Forss after motioning to his left side when trying to skate the ailment off during a TV timeout in the third period.

"It appeared to be muscular more than anything to me as I watched during the play," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "But we'll see. We'll have more information tomorrow."

Netminder Connor Hellebuyck stayed composed in Winnipeg's crease to earn the victory with 38 saves, while Stuart Skinner was given the loss after stopping 24-of-27 shots from the Jets.

"I thought their goaltender made a couple of saves on breakaways that kept them in the game and gave them a chance to be opportunistic," Woodcroft said. "I thought in the game tonight, our players played hard. It was a good compete level. I thought we controlled the bulk of the play, had the majority of the chances, but we just didn't find the two points."

Edmonton hits the road for a one-game trip to Minnesota to face the Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night.

FIRST PERIOD

How about that Dynamic Duo?

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are both elite contributors on their own; but when paired up on a line or on the Oilers' potent power play, they're an unstoppable connection.

The top-two offensive talents in the League orchestrated Edmonton's two goals in the first period with some stellar passing to extend their league-leading home point streaks after setting up Darnell Nurse inside the opening minutes before Bouchard blasted his first of the season past Connor Hellebuyck on the man advantage.

Draisaitl crossed the blueline in the game's early going and buttoned-turned along the half-boards before dropping a backhand pass to McDavid, who followed suit with his German linemate by pivoting and connecting the follow-up feed onto the tape of the dropping Blue & Orange blueliner in Nurse.

The defenceman took a split second to control the puck before firing the opening goal top shelf past Hellebuyck at 1:25 of the first period as Edmonton started out the contest with plenty of jump in their game.

The Duo was back at it on the power play almost five minutes later, putting Winnipeg's penalty kill into all sorts of trouble with a quick exchange that lit the fuse for Bouchard's first bomb of the campaign.

McDavid cut into the middle of the slot and bobbled his attempt, but after Bouchard returned the puck onto his blade, the captain quickly reversed a pass to Draisaitl in his regular power-play location in the left circle. With Hellebuyck expecting the German's wicked release, the Jets netminder was left sprawling when the puck was delivered to Bouchard for a one-timer that beat him clean from the middle of the blueline at 13:49 of the opening frame.

Draisaitl was held pointless in only 12 games during last season, and Saturday's two assists in the first period after failing to get on the scoresheet in Philadelphia meant he remain without a two-game pointless streak since February 7-9, 2023.

The Oilers were outshooting the Jets by a decisive 10-1 margin at the midway point of the first period until a slashing call on Draisaitl opened a window for Winnipeg.

The German's old teammate with the WHL's Prince Albert Raiders Josh Morrissey snuck a point shot under the left arm of Skinner through traffic with one second left in Draisaitl's infraction after the visitors won possession from the faceoff. Dylan DeMelo and Morgan Barron picked up the assists.

"Certainly there are moments in the game where we can control our sticks better, but I thought the penalty guild did a heck of a job," Woodcroft said. "Obviously, it's disappointing to give up that one with one second left.

Despite the Blue & Orange owning a 19-6 advantage on the shot clock through the opening 20 minutes, Morrissey's goal was the start of the momentum swing that led to their defeat.

"You worry if you're not getting chances. You worry if you're not getting goaltending. You worry if your team doesn't compete," Woodcroft said. "I thought we did all of those things.

"There's maybe small moments in the game that we'd want to have back both offensively and defensively... There are moments we can do better in the game, but I think if we stick with some of the good things that we're doing, eventually the results find themselves," Woodcroft said. "It didn't go that way for us tonight. We got one instead of two, so it's disappointing."

SECOND PERIOD

Just 99 seconds from the intermission, failing to clear a loose puck just inside their zone meant we'd have a tie game heading into the third period.

"Just too up and down," Draisaitl said. "Not consistent enough right now. It feels like every mistake we make just ends up in the back of our net, so lots of things to fix."

Skinner made a number of important saves in the middle frame, with his sprawling save against Rasmus Kupari on a breakaway three-and-a-half minutes into the period being his biggest, but a lack of passing options and some indecisiveness in his decision-making before the break leading to a sloppy equalizing goal for Winnipeg.

The Oilers netminder tried to poke the puck past Alex Iafallo, who aggressively pursued a missed shot that rimmed all the way down the ice on an Edmonton power play. But when the puck got knocked forward off his skate blade, the Winnipeg winger's wrap-around attempt was put into Edmonton's net shorthanded by Namestnikov despite Nurse's best efforts to prevent the puck from crossing the line.

"It was a little bit of a 50/50," Skinner said. "I didn't really catch a read on our guys or their guy, so I had a little stutter-step, went for it, got scored on, and we moved on... [Nurse and I] stutter-stepped at the exact same time, so I had two choices to make and I made the wrong one. Now, I know what to do next time."

The Jets managed to battle their way back in shots by doubling up the Oilers 12-6 in the middle stanza.

THIRD PERIOD

The Jets tried to exploit the diagonal cross-ice pass as they pressured in the Oilers zone for the all-important goal, but there was no clear winner through 60 minutes.

Skinner lunged out to take away one of those diagonal passes from Winnipeg inside the final five minutes, with Nikolaj Ehlers fumbling the rebound before having his second attempt swallowed up by the Oilers netminder before time expired in regulation.

"Just little moments," Draisaitl added. "It's mostly individual mistakes that are causing these errors right now. It's not really our system breaks down, it's just individual little mistakes that we've got to clean up."

OVERTIME

When the captain isn't able to go, you need others to take hold of the moment.

The task couldn't be completed.

"I think when he wasn't available there down the stretch and into overtime, it's an opportunity for others to step up," Woodcroft said. "We had chances, but we just didn't convert."

"We've got lots of great players on our team that are capable of filling in," Draisaitl added. "Obviously, we couldn't get it done tonight. A little mistake by me there, but lots of things to clean up."

Mark Scheifele extended his point streak to eight games by deflecting Josh Morrissey's low shot over Skinner's left pad at 2:07 of extra time for the game-winning goal after losing his man in Draisaitl at the top of the slot.

"To be honest, I knew that was coming a year ago," Skinner said of the play. "I kind of backed off a bit, and now I know to kind of step up on them and just push into them. That's a save that I can make."

PARTING WORDS

Coach Woodcroft in his team's concern level after a 1-3-1 start to their regular season:

"What's more concerning was the areas of certain games that I didn't feel were playing to a standard. I think that stuff kind of sorts itself out over time. In these first five games, we are 1-3-1. That's not good enough to get us to where we want to get to, so that's an opportunity for us to continue to work at our process and our game so that we can find ways to collect points; because collecting points in October is certainly just as important as collecting points later on in the season.

"I think there were positives in our game today. It's easy to go to the negative, but we'll try and take some of those positives and build off of it."

Woodcroft on the Oilers taking five minor penalties and their influence on their bench flow:

"I thought I took the flow out of the second period specifically, but there were penalties both ways. What ends up happening is that guys get taken out of the game minutes-wise, rotation-wise, and the rhythm of the game just gets all out of whack in that situation. Certainly, there are moments in the game where we can control our sticks better, but I thought the penalty guild did a heck of a job. Obviously, it's disappointing to give up that one with one second left."

Skinner on some of the missing elements in their game and how he can step up:

"I believe we've scored enough goals to win games. For my two games, keeping the puck out of the net and if I do a little bit better at my job, I think we'll be able to win those games. So it's not always up to the guys scoring the goals, especially when it comes down to crunch time. You don't see scores normally 6-5, you see them pretty tight and that's kind of the game that we're going to be comfortable in and I believe we are comfortable in."