Islanders 4, Jets 3 (OT)
WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Just when you thought the Winnipeg Jets were about to pull off a rare third-period comeback victory, the snake-bitten team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Jets center Mark Scheifele scored his second goal of the game and 17th of the season with just over two minutes to play against the New York Islanders, but Winnipeg couldn't make the lead stand up.
Not only did the visitors pull their goalie to get a goal by Nick Leddy with 29 seconds left in regulation, but Kyle Okposo used a lucky bounce off the face of Winnipeg's Nikolaj Ehlers to score his second goal of the night at 2:20 of overtime, giving New York a 4-3 win.
The Islanders took a 2-1 lead at 8:32 of the third period when Shane Prince knocked a puck out of air, corralled it as he skated past Dustin Byfuglien and squeezed a wrist shot between Winnipeg goalie Michael Hutchinson's pads for his fourth of the season. Thomas Hickey and Kyle Okposo drew the assists.
Just when the crowd was starting to think the Jets were once again going to play just well enough to lose, Alexander Burmistrov found Tyler Myers sneaking in from the point. The giant defenseman accepted the pass on his skate, kicked it up to his stick and fired a low shot between goalie Thomas Greiss' legs. That tied the game 2-2 at 9:56 of the third period.
The Jets opened the scoring at 16:13 of the first period when Scheifele tapped home his 16th of the season on a feed from Mathieu Perreault for a rare power-play goal. The Jets have been at or near the bottom of the league with the man advantage virtually all season.
The Islanders tied it at 6:02 of the second when Manitoba-born Travis Hamonic stepped up from his defensive position to forecheck deep in the Jets zone and sent a seeing-eye backhand pass to Calvin De Haan in the deep slot, whose shot trickled through Hutchinson.
Greiss finished with 26 saves in the win. Hutchinson stopped 23 shots.
NOTES: The Islanders played the sixth game of a seven-game road trip. They are 5-1-0 thus far, including a 3-2 victory in Vancouver on Tuesday. ... Since the Jets relocated to Winnipeg nearly five years ago, the Islanders are 6-0-1 at the MTS Centre. ... Islanders D Travis Harmonic, who grew up in St. Malo, Manitoba, which is an hour south of Winnipeg, generated headlines earlier this season when he said he requested a trade to be closer to home for an undisclosed family reason. It is widely believed the Jets are at the top of his list. ... The Jets' scratches included RW Matt Halischuk and C Bryan Little, who is out for the season with a broken bone in his back. ... Scratches for the Islanders were RW Steve Bernier, LW Eric Boulton, D Marek Zidlicky, D Brian Strait and G Jean-Francois Berube.