Jets beat Hurricanes in OT after blowing 3-goal lead in final 5 minutes of regulation
Morrissey salvages win for Winnipeg with 2 goals, including overtime winner
Rick Bowness wasn't going to dump on the Winnipeg Jets after they overcame a late surge by the Carolina Hurricanes and skated off with a 4-3 overtime victory on Monday.
Defenceman Josh Morrissey scored once in regulation and added the winner on a breakaway 2:10 into overtime.
The Jets were ahead 3-0 when the Hurricanes scored three goals in the final 4:48 of the third period after pulling goalie Pyotr Kochetkov for the extra attacker with about 5:30 remaining.
Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and two assists and Michael Eyssimont, with his first NHL goal, also scored for the Jets (11-5-1), who are 7-2-0 at Canada Life Centre this season. Blake Wheeler collected a pair of assists.
"Before we hopped on to start overtime, Mikey Eyssimont and Dylan Samberg were saying, `Let's go boys, let's get this one."' Morrissey said. "Two young guys with not that many games experience, so that kind of shows the calm on our bench.
"Obviously we don't want to be in that situation, but from older players, coaches, to guys with a handful of games, we never wavered."
WATCH | Morrissey pots OT goal:
David Rittich made 24 saves in his fourth start for Winnipeg. He's now won his last three starts.
Jaccob Slavin, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas scored for the Hurricanes (10-5-4), who are on a four-game point streak (1-0-3) and lost for the third straight game in overtime. Sebastian Aho recorded three assists.
Hurricanes' furious comeback attempt
"It's a crazy game, No. 1. You just never know," Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "But I loved how, we were out of that game in the third and then they just kind of dug in and just said, `Let's go.' I give the guys credit for not giving up."
Brind'Amour said they "had nothing to lose" in pulling Kochetkov earlier than normal.
Kochetkov made his first consecutive start in net for Carolina and stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.
Necas liked their coach's decision to go for it.
"If you look at it with five minutes left in the period and you're losing 3-0 and you still get a point from the game, it's pretty good for us," Necas said. "But we could have done better."
Eyssimont made it 2-0 at 6:44 of the second after the Colorado native capitalized on teammate David Gustafsson's breakaway. Gustafsson's shot bounced off Kochetkov and Eyssimont got the rebound and notched his notable goal in his fourth NHL career game.
Morrissey made it 3-0 at 3:56 of the third.
The Hurricanes' trio of goals were scored in a span of 4:09.
Slavin scored with the extra attacker at 15:12, Svechnikov added his tipped-in goal at 16:52 and Necas notched his at 19:21.
