Jets wrap 2018 with 4-3 win over Oilers

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This article was published 31/12/2018 (2441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s had nights when his antics hindered the Winnipeg Jets’ push for a victory, but Brendan Lemieux showed Monday in Edmonton he can be a positive influence as well.

The hard-nosed fourth-liner scored a pair of goals, including the winner on a tip-in of a waist-high shot from the point that beat Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen with 5:58 left in the third period, to spark the Jets to a 4-3 triumph.

Leon Draisaitl had tied the game 3-3 with his second goal of the game and 21st of the season just over seven minutes into the final frame. He nearly had the equalizer with time winding down but Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck pushed across his crease to make a brilliant glove stop with 24 seconds left and the Oilers’ net empty — negating the need for yet another overtime session between the Western Conference clubs.

Veteran defenceman Tyler Myers then blocked Draisaitl’s quick shot with only seven ticks left on the clock.

The Jets — donning their Heritage Classic jerseys – wrapped up a sensational 2018 calendar year in style, improving to 25-12-2 to remain four points ahead of the Nashville Predators for top spot in the Central Division.

Lemieux said he relished playing a crucial role as Winnipeg snapped a two-game, post-holiday season losing skid.

“It felt great. It’s good to be a difference-maker,” he told media in Edmonton. “I thought our line played really well tonight. It’s the first time we’ve had that dynamic with (Andrew Copp) up the middle and (Jack Roslovic) on the wing. I loved our line. There’s some stuff we could clean up but I was really happy with our line tonight.”

Lemieux had scored his second goal of the year early in the middle period, barreling into the crease to knock a puck past Koskinen. His third of the season and just the fourth of his NHL career came off a drive by Joe Morrow after centre Andrew Copp’s clean faceoff win in the final frame.

“Textbook snap-back draw from Copper and then a perfect shot from Mojo. He just put it right in an area and I was able to get a stick on it.” said Lemieux, on his deft deflection.

He admitted his first of the night came on a play that’s his bread and butter.

“(Copp and Roslovic) were both battling, I was fresh off the bench and I was kind of trying to hide behind the play and then I just figured this is not where I score my goals, I gotta get to the paint, and so I did that,” Lemieux said, laughing.

“The puck was bouncing around like crazy. Copper should have scored just before that… I was able to get a whack at it before the whistle blew and it crawled across the line.”

Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice inserted Morrow and Lemieux into the lineup for the New Year’s Eve tilt after both had watched from the press box recently. Lemieux was a healthy scratch the past two contests for Winnipeg, while Morrow hasn’t played since Nov. 29 — a combination of an injury and then being the extra defenceman upon his return.

Lemieux was in the penalty box serving an interference minor when Draisaitl scored on the power play late in the second period to knot the game 2-2. But Jets captain Blake Wheeler bailed him out with a laser beam to the top corner just 29 seconds later, his sixth goal of the season and first in 10 games.

He’s a rambuctious player by nature — and Winnipeg wouldn’t have it any other way. Earlier in the season, Lemieux found himself in Maurice’s doghouse after he threw a dangerous hit to the head of Florida’s Vincent Trocheck in the second game of the Jets-Panthers series in Finland.

The Jets were shorthanded for a chunk of time and fell behind the Panthers, who eventually carved out a 4-2 victory. Lemieux was suspended two games and then was relegated to the press box for five games as a healthy scratch.

Since then, he’s only taken a pair of minor penalties and one fighting major. Maurice was asked if the son of ex-NHL great Claude Lemieux had to win back the trust of the organization by demonstrating he could play a rugged style within the boundaries of the rulebook.

“Everbody has something that they have to work on, right? Brendan’s a physical player and he’s a bit of an agitator but he can handle himself. He can drop the gloves and handle himself.

“He needed to learn that specific lesson fairly early on in his career that when you cross that line — and it’s one thing to take a penalty but it’s another thing to put us down seven minutes in the second period and cost us the game,” said the Winnipeg bench boss, referring to the costly hit in Helsinki on Nov. 2.

“I didn’t lose faith. Had (the interference penalty) happened early again, now I got a problem (because) I can’t put the guy on the ice again. But that’s an interference penalty and we’ve taken them before. I never lost faith in him because he never took that second miss-step.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, with his 14th, opened the scoring for Edmonton (18-18-3), which has lost six in a row.

Birthday-boy Brandon Tanev, who turned 27 on Monday, netted his eighth of the year on a deflection early in the second period and then Lemieux scored just 83 seconds later.

Hellebuyck finished with 21 saves to post the 100th victory of his NHL career.

“I knew I’ve been chasing it for a while and I kind of forgot about it. I’m really excited and I’m glad it’s with this group of guys,” he said, adding he was glad lend a hand at the very end.

“I needed to make my mark somehow. The guys were playing so well in front of me, so to have that game tied is not the way I wanted it to go,” Hellebuyck said, on robbing Draisaitl.

Koskinen had 32 stops for Edmonton.

The Jets had dropped two straight after the Christmas break — a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames and a 3-1 setback to the Minnesota Wild.

They return to action Friday in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell