In their first regular season game in front of home fans, the Winnipeg Jets gave the crowd very little to cheer about for almost 59 minutes.
And then Mark Scheifele took over.
Down 1-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks late in the third period, Scheifele tied it with 1:04 left and then scored again 38 seconds into overtime to give Winnipeg a 2-1 win over Chicago Friday night.
“You need your best players to come up big at the right times and they did,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel.
Scheifele’s OT winner was the 300th goal of his career and he now has three goals in the first two games of the season.
“That’s the way hockey goes, sometimes it takes 59 minutes to get one home and bring it to overtime,” Scheifele said. “It’s never over until it’s over.”
Despite the win, the coach said it was a far cry from their 6-0 season-opening win in Edmonton Wednesday night.
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“Our whole group, our execution wasn’t very good. We had 10-foot passes and we were missing guys, just our execution altogether wasn’t very good for 60 minutes,” Arniel said.
It was the seventh straight time Winnipeg won their home opener and the Jets have now won 10 straight regular season games dating back to last season.
Connor Hellebuyck got his second straight start in net, making 25 saves as he’s allowed just one goal in two games.
It took until the 16:52 mark of the second period for the game’s first goal as Chicago’s Ryan Donato beat Hellebuyck short side to give Chicago a 1-0 lead which they held until the waning moments of the third period.
“There were times in that second period, where we got away from it a bit and Bucky made some big saves,” Scheifele said. “From there, I think we kinda buckled down, we got the puck deep, we made their D work and kinda hemmed them in a couple times and got some chances and we just got back to our game.”
Josh Morrissey helped set up the OT winner, giving him three assists in the first two games of the season.
The announced attendance was 14,564.
This was the first of four straight games at Canada Life Centre for the Jets, who continue the homestand Sunday when they take on another Central Division rival, the Minnesota Wild.
The pregame show will begin on 680 CJOB at 3 p.m., with puck drop just after 5 p.m.