Pionk scores twice, including OT winner, to lift Jets over Avalanche
Winnipeg regroups after squandering 2-goal lead; Hellebuyck makes 30 saves
Neal Pionk scored his second goal of the game 31 seconds into overtime and the Winnipeg Jets regrouped after squandering a two-goal lead to beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Wednesday night in Denver.
Pionk's slap shot from the right side momentarily froze goaltender Alexandar Georgiev and nicked off the post to go in. It was Pionk's first career overtime goal.
The winning goal was set up by Mason Appleton in the other end, when he kept Nathan MacKinnon away from the puck along the boards. Appleton then fed the puck ahead to Pionk.
"It doesn't go unnoticed," Pionk said about Appleton's play. "He used his big body, made a nice little play to me, and I put it in the net."
WATCH | Pionk leads Jets to OT win over Avs:
Sam Gagner and Cole Perfetti also had goals for the Jets, who finish a difficult back-to-back with a game at Vegas on Thursday night. Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.
Leading 3-1 in the second period, Winnipeg saw Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin score 2:01 apart to tie it. Rantanen led the comeback for Colorado with two goals and an assist in the second.
Nichushkin has scored in all four games this season. Rantanen's two-goal night gives him 168 for his career. He moved into 10th place on the franchise goals list.
Hellebuyck kept the Jets in the game late by turning back a tricky snap shot from Alex Newhook and then another from Artturi Lehkonen. The Jets were outshot in the final period by a 9-5 margin.
That's because the Jets found a way to neutralize the speed of Colorado in the first period by controlling the tempo. Gagner had a power-play goal and Pionk added another, but it could've been more than a two-goal cushion, if not for several split-second pad saves by Georgiev, the newest Avalanche goaltender.
"You've got to be assertive," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "That's a hard-working team over there, a deep team, especially their forward group. To me, we weren't skating and we weren't engaged enough to start."
The Jets are 2-4-4 in their last 10 at Colorado.
"It's huge," Appleton said of the win after his two-assist night. "Stanley Cup winners right there."
