Jets improve playoff position, earning crucial 2 points on road against Predators
Pionk scores in OT to drop Nashville 5 points back of 2nd wild-card berth in West
Neal Pionk scored 55 seconds into overtime to give the Winnipeg Jets a 3-2 victory over the hometwon Nashville Predators on Saturday.
"We played well enough to win that in regulation," Jets head coach Rick Bowness said. "Give their goaltender [credit], he was outstanding. We were really happy with our overall team game for 60 minutes."
Cody Glass and Luke Evangelista scored and Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the Predators, who have lost two straight.
"I was really proud of our guys," Predators head coach John Hynes said. "Big magnitude game, lot of guys playing in the first game of that magnitude in the NHL. I thought our guys battled really hard. I'm proud of them."
WATCH | Pionk lifts Jets over Predators in OT:
The Predators trail Winnipeg by five points in the chase for the Western Conference's second wild-card berth, though Nashville has played three fewer games.
"Obviously, you'd love to win in regulation, take all two," Lowry said. "If we take care of business on our end, we play them again, we'll put ourselves in the driver's seat to control our own destiny."
Just 34 seconds after Ehlers tied the game at 1 early in the third with a slap shot from the top of the left circle, Evangelista took a feed from Tommy Novak in the low slot and banked a shot off of Hellebuyck and into the net. Novak has points in five consecutive games.
Lowry converted the rebound of a Morrissey shot at 10:15 of the third.
"We stuck with it and I thought we started to generate more as the game went on, make plays when they were there," Morrissey said.
"Obviously you'd like two [points], but you got to take what you can get," Glass said. "We're still three games in hand or whatever it is. We need to string along a couple wins here and really just come together."
Philip Tomasino also assisted on Glass' goal, extending his point-scoring streak to four games, which equals a career high.
