Ehlers, Laine score, but Jets fall in overtime to Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In the words of Connor Hellebuyck, "every point is earned."
The Winnipeg Jets earned every bit of the single point they left Washington's Capital One Arena with, as for the second straight game, they faced a third period deficit.
This time though, the Jets found the equalizer, before Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a breakaway in overtime to hand Winnipeg a 3-2 loss.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored his 27th of the season, while Patrik Laine extended his new franchise record point streak to 12 games with his 41st of the campaign to round out the scoring for the Jets, who fall to 41-18-10.
"I thought the second half of the game, our forecheck got pretty solid, pretty strong, and created a lot of loose pucks and had some chances," said head coach Paul Maurice. "So did they. But I thought for a road game, we built as the game went on, and I liked the hockey part of it for sure."
The Capitals took full advantage of a 5-on-3 power play early in the first Alex Ovechkin fired home his 41st of the season from his favourite spot. His wrist shot deflected off the skate of Tyler Myers and through the legs of Connor Hellebuyck, giving Ovechkin 599 career goals.

The lead lasted 58 seconds, as Ehlers pounced on a neutral zone drop back pass from Lars Eller, intended for Dmitry Orlov during four-on-four play. With a burst of speed, the 22-year-old flew around Orlov, and slipped his 27th of the season past Philipp Grubauer to even things up.
Ovechkin would put the Capitals back in front just under four minutes into the second. The 32-year-old pounced on a rebound resulting from a Tom Wilson shot in the slot, and on his second attempt, knocked a rebound over a sprawling Hellebuyck to reach the 600-career goals milestone.
"It wasn't talked about, trying to keep him off the board or where he stood in career goals," said Wheeler. "Obviously every time you play this team, you have a tremendous amount of respect for where he is on the ice and what he's able to do.
"600 goals is incredible, especially at his age. It wasn't something we focused on, but I'm sure every guy acknowledged it at some point on the ice. It's a pretty rare accomplishment, especially nowadays."

Held to three shots on goal through 40 minutes, Laine made his fourth count. With the puck along the right wing boards, the 19-year-old found space behind the Washington defenders. Paul Stastny fired a quick pass across the ice to Laine, who snapped one through Grubauer's legs for his 41st of the campaign.
More importantly, it tied the game at two just 5:02 into the third.

"I think we just stuck with it. We just wanted to play our game, we didn't want to open up the game in the first 10 minutes," said Laine. "We know they have a good offence, we can't give them any odd-man rushes, because overall they're going to score at some point. We tried to play good defence and score on our chances.
"It was a tight one. We were chasing after two again, but we found a way to get it even and get the huge one point we needed, but obviously we were looking for two points, but didn't get that."

That's the way it would stay until the extra frame. While the Jets carried the play in the third, a few of the nine saves Hellebuyck needed to make with time winding down were a big reason the game got to overtime.
In total, Hellebuyck turned away 40 of Washington's 43 shots, including six in the overtime period, which included a Jets penalty kill.
"That was fun. They were ripping pucks, and that's what you expect these guys to do," said Hellebuyck. "There is a lot of skill over there, they set up right, and they have Ovechkin, so you have to honour him. It was my time to have some fun.
"I liked the way we battled. I liked the way we stayed in it. Obviously we can learn from this. We didn't get the two points, and that's what we need, and that's what we want right now."
The six-game road trip wraps up tomorrow night in Nashville against the Predators, with the Jets looking to improve on the 3-1-1 record they have on the trip so far.
"It's an opportunity to have a real strong road trip," said Maurice. "Always a challenge back-to-back, certainly going into there. But it's the light at the end of the tunnel for our guys. At 3-1-1, it could be a real good trip for us."
ICE CHIPS
Matt Hendricks left the game in the third period and didn't return. Maurice said they'll have a better idea of the extent of the injury tomorrow, but he doesn't have Hendricks playing against the Predators.