Laine, Jets defeat Flames in OT in season opener

WINNIPEG -- Patrik Laine scored his second goal 1:18 into overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 win against the Calgary Flames at Bell MTS Place on Thursday in the season opener for each team.

Kyle Connor scored a power-play goal and had two assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets.
Laine had an assist on Connor's goal.
"Three points, it's not always going to tell the whole story," Laine said. "Hopefully, I can just build off that game. There's a lot of things we need to work on, and the three points are not going to tell the true story of the game. Obviously, it's a good start. You've got to produce, so that was good, and it was two big points for us."
Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary, and Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves in his Flames debut.
"I think overall [Markstrom] has been looking really good and he's been excited to get going and get the first game in," Lindholm said. "He saved us at least one point tonight, so all credit to him. I think everyone wants to win in there, and after such a good first (period), I think we let everyone down, and we didn't come out in the second and third and play the way we wanted, so that's got to change to the next game."

Tkachuk gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 4:28 of the first period when he deflected a Rasmus Andersson shot.
Laine scored on a breakaway to tie the game 1-1 at 7:24.
"We could have been up 2-0, and (Jets defenseman) Derek Forbort saves a goal by Rasmus Andersson, and then they make the long play to Laine, and it's in the net and it's 1-1," Flames coach Geoff Ward said. "But I thought we came right back, got the next two goals, and got our feet back underneath us again."
Gaudreau scored a power-play goal to make it 2-1 at 11:24, and Lindholm made it 3-1 at 16:28 with a one-timer off a pass from Dillon Dube.
Mark Scheifele scored 34 seconds into the second period to get the Jets within 3-2.
"The goal was critical because it took some pressure off," Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. "It put the game within one, with so much time. That, to me, was the turning point. The second goal was huge."

Ward said, "They got a goal on the first shift and that put us back on our heels a little bit. I thought it was tough for us to get momentum back. We took [two] penalties in a row there, and they got some momentum again off their power play."
Connor tied it 3-3 when he scored at 5-on-3 at 15:04 with a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Laine.
"I think everybody's focused on my shot, and they kind of forget about that part of my game," Laine said.

Markstrom, who signed as a free agent Oct. 9 after seven seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, kept the game tied with a glove save against Scheifele while out of position with 2:56 remaining in the third period.
"It wasn't our best start, but the team stuck with it, and bottom line, we came out of it with two points, and that's definitely a game that we can build on," Connor said.
NOTES: Defenseman Chris Tanev had an assist on Lindholm's goal and was plus-1 in 20:22 in his Calgary debut. ... Defenseman Nikita Nesterov and forwards Joakim Nordstrom and Josh Leivo each played his first game for the Flames. ... Forbort had an assist on Laine's first goal and was plus-1 in 19:17 in his Winnipeg debut. ... Forwards Nate Thompson and Trevor Lewis each played his first game for the Jets.