Laine, Connor combine for six points in Jets comeback win

WINNIPEG - Nikolaj Ehlers perhaps said it best.
"I thought we dominated from the second period on," were his words - and the stats back that up.
Trailing 3-1 after 20 minutes, the Jets rallied back with two goals in the second period and Patrik Laine capped off a three-point night with the overtime winner, as the Jets beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 to open the regular season.
Laine and Kyle Connor had three-point efforts in the victory.

"Three points isn't always going to tell the whole story," said Laine, adding there are areas the Jets will want to improve despite the win.
"Obviously it's a good start for a guy playing the first power play unit and playing big minutes. You have to produce. That was good. Getting the OT winner, two huge points for us, we'll keep going forward from here."

The Jets outshot the Flames 28-13 in the final 43:42 of game play and held the edge in shot attempts at even strength as well, 32-21.
It was a solid performance that Paul Stastny credited head coach Paul Maurice for.
"Paul came in and gave a good speech," Stastny said. "Sometimes when you're thinking too much, your feet are in quicksand and you're just looking around too much. Everyone is hoping for things to happen."
Maurice was hesitant to take that credit, though.
"The good speech was at the start of the game, but it didn't translate into a good start," Maurice said with a grin. "We were just tight."
It certainly wasn't the start the Jets were hoping for in the opening period. Matthew Tkachuk deflected a Rasmus Andersson point shot over the right shoulder of Connor Hellebuyck to give the Flames the lead.

Just under three minutes later, the Jets responded with Laine's first of the game off a crazy sequence. Former Flame Derek Forbort slid into the crease to deny Andersson, who had faked out Hellebuyck and had a yawning cage. The puck kicked out to Connor, who sent Laine in on a partial breakaway. Laine's signature wrist shot beat Jacob Markstrom to tie the game.
"Sometimes you get that goal early to start the season and you start feeling it," Stastny said of Laine's performance. "That was a big goal for us. They came at us hard in that first period. We were definitely on our heels."
Laine has now recorded at least a point in each of his first five season openers. He has nine points in that span.
Calgary took the lead back though. First, it was Johnny Gaudreau firing home a power play goal. That was followed 5:04 later by a one-timer blast from Elias Lindholm, which made it 3-1 for the visitors.
But the flood of the ice seemed to bring a fresh Jets squad to the ice in the second period. Mark Scheifele would pull the Jets within one just 34 seconds into the second period. It capped off a great shift from Nikolaj Ehlers, who got an assist on the play.

Ehlers was a question mark coming into the game after missing Wednesday's practice due to Covid protocol. However, he was deemed fit to play on Thursday finishing with an assist, four shots on goal, and 17:31 of ice time.
"Obviously you want to be out there on the ice, even for practice, you want to be around your team, but there's a reason those protocols are there and they're a big reason we're allowed to play," said Ehlers. "It was fine with me. I ended up playing today and I'm happy I was out there."
Calgary got into penalty trouble later in the second as they were called for too many men with 6:45 to go, then a Lindholm hooking penalty put them down two.
Maurice called a time-out, then deployed five forwards for the 5-on-3 advantage. It paid off, as Laine slipped a perfect seam pass to Connor in the right face-off circle. Connor, who led the Jets in goals last season, made no mistake.
"We worked on it last week, then I took the time-out - a 5-on-3 is such an incredible opportunity to score - you want to make sure those guys are fresh," Maurice said of the five forward power play.
"We went over what we worked on, but they'd seen it before. It was about getting those guys that had already been on the power play just enough rest so they could be sharp."

It stayed tied at three until overtime, when Laine corralled the puck below his own goal line. With two crossovers, he started back the other way with two Flames giving chase.
Sean Monahan caught him with a stick lift, but Laine stayed committed and was able to flick the loose puck past Markstrom to seal the win.
It was the perfect end to the night for Laine and the Jets.
"That was one of the better games with the puck with my line mates," said Laine. "I think we clicked pretty well. That was a big win for us."