Ehlers scored twice while Morrissey contributed three assists for their win; Johnson tied it late with Chicago, but Kyle Connor delivered an overtime winner to give the Winnipeg Jets an unlikely come-from-behind win at United Center on Friday afternoon.
Jets vs Blackhawks
Nick Foligno of Chicago deflected Connor’s right face-off circle shot off his skate and into the goal, creating an awkward situation for Chicago forward Kyle Connor to score from.
“They had some space in the neutral zone,” Connor noted, noting the great work by Josh Morrissey of the Jets to break it up and provide some breaks for him and for himself to hit backdoor shots from there and hit on goal himself but their shots went wide of goal despite attempts. Sometimes, you need a bit of luck to score goals like these!
Jets vs Blackhawks OT winner
Tyler Johnson had scored to knot up the game at two for Chicago with just 43 seconds remaining in the third period and Petr Mrazek serving as the extra attacker.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored two goals, Morrissey had three assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves as the Jets (35-15-5) won five out of six during their four-game season series that concluded Friday; each game was decided by one goal, with the Jets winning three times outright.
“They play very hard against us,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness noted of Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson’s matchups at home ice for Chicago coach Luke Richardson to utilize, and that’s fine with us – we expect our guys to play through any obstacles no matter how great it may become. Give their team credit; their coaching staff did an outstanding job against us – giving us hard time as often as they were ready – although when given opportunities, Mrazek made several key saves against them.”
Colin Blackwell: Jets vs Blackhawks
Colin Blackwell scored, while Mrazek made 28 saves to lead Chicago to their 11th straight loss and 15-39-4 record overall.
Richardson acknowledged his team played exceptionally in the third period. However, they made a great effort throughout, especially in O-Z, carrying most of the play in that frame.
Ehlers gave the Jets their initial lead at 14:47 of the opening period when he took Dylan DeMelo’s pass along the redline and released an audacious wrist shot over Mrazek’s right shoulder from a sharp angle in the left face-off circle – finally ending an 11-game goalless drought for Ehlers!
At 1:49 of the second period, Ehlers made it 2-0 by capitalizing on a delayed penalty and picking up the puck behind the Jet’s net, skating through the neutral zone, banking it off right-wing boards to himself, then moving into the offensive area, scoring from the slot position.
Jets Blackhawks Highlights
“My goal was to gain speed,” he stated. “Initially, you just try to get into your zone, but after seeing an opening, I thought there might be; I spotted an opportunity and thought perhaps sneak through and get off a good shot.”
Blackwell reduced it to 2-1 at 15:58 with an incredible breakaway goal on his own from Seth Jones’ pass up the middle in the neutral zone and scoring with his forehand to Hellebuyck’s glove side forehander.
“I got the puck into the middle, and Blackie immediately took off,” Jones noted. “That was incredible to witness; no one expected this kind of play when there is usually turnover at the hash-mark area; thus Blackie showed great recognition by taking this shot on goal – something which I tried to capture on videotape for him!”
Johnson felt it was disappointing for the Blackhawks not to gain two points after they tied the game through his efforts.
“That happens all too often in hockey – when tying it late, you get scored on that first overtime shift!” He continued: “But that’s hockey; for the most part, we played a solid game overall, maybe occasionally getting away from our plan, but that should just be seen as part of learning, as long as we stay within that direct game environment”.
Also Read:
