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John Woods / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jets Alexei Ponikarovsky (right) and Tobias Enstrom celebrate Ponikarovsky�s first-period goal against the New York Islanders. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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   • Victory was no Picasso, but a decent Montoya

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John Woods / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Evander Kane rams into Travis Hamonic during the first period. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

A game of wild swings ended on the stride of a thoroughbred.

Winnipeg Jets left-winger Evander Kane raced from his own zone in overtime, beating New York Islanders defender Thomas Hickey to the net, where he managed to chop and whack an Olli Jokinen rebound over the goal line at 1:59. With the final three goals of the game, it went into the books as a 5-4 victory for the Jets.

After the buzzer

-- Kane said he was hoping for the breakaway, but when Jokinen kept the puck, he knew what to do, giving the home team the two points and a record of 3-1-1 in the first five games of the NHL season.

"I knew Olli had it and there was nobody in my way... I was actually looking for the breakaway but Olli kept it and I knew he was shooting it when I saw the big windup," Kane said. "He has a really hard shot so ... I almost flew by but thank goodness I didn't."

First period

-- Probably not the start they were looking for. The Jets surrendered the first goal for the third straight game, this time when Toby Enstrom was stripped of the puck by Islanders' David Ullstrum. Ullstrum used the two-on-one patiently and then snapped a hard one over the glove of Winnipeg goalie Al Montoya.

-- The equalizer came from Alexei Ponikarovsky at mid-period, a set-up that was vintage Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood led his linemate perfectly to a soft spot in front of New York goalie Evgeni Nabokov for the tap-in.

"A good play by Kyle," Ponikarovsky said. "I just kind of went to the net and got open and he saw me there. I had nothing else to do but put it in the net."

Second period

-- Bryan Little forged the home team ahead 2-1 through 40 minutes, converting a nice play from Nik Antropov and Andrew Ladd for his first goal of the season.

Third period

-- The wildest of periods. New York's John Tavares tied it 22 seconds in, then assisted on the 3-2 and 4-2 goals by Matt Moulson and Mark Streit.

-- Inside the last 7:01, the Jets found a way back from two goals down, just like they did against Pittsburgh on Friday. Dustin Byfuglien rang in a power-play goal off the post and Alex Burmistrov clicked for his first of the season with 5:56 to play to send it to extra time.

-- "I've been trying hard and it doesn't go in," Burmistrov said. "Tonight it went in. I got lucky, I guess."

-- Added coach Claude Noel: "No, it wasn't a Picasso, that's for sure. But you're going to have those nights.

"What you have to do is try to get a grip on things. It wasn't ideally what you would have liked, but what I did like was that we had some time left in the game and we didn't sit and dwell on the negative, sit and beat ourselves up."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Game Breakers

John Tavares

A goal 22 seconds into the third to tie it, helpers on two more in the same frame.

Evander Kane

Scores goal No. 3 of the season in OT, and the Jets pull one out of the fire.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 28, 2013 C1