Ryan Dzingel likes to tease teammate Chris Tierney, but he was thanking him Saturday night.
Tierney set up Dzingel’s goal at 3:44 of overtime as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 for their third victory in the past five games.
“I put Tierney in a bad spot on the blue line and he chips it in and then makes a great pass,” Dzingel said.
“Like I joke around that he’s skating at half-speed all the time, but when you make plays like that you can skate as slow as you want.”
Mark Stone, Rudolfs Balcers and Matt Duchene scored power-play goals for Ottawa (22-31-5). Stone, Duchene and Dzingel also had one assist apiece. Tierney has six assists in a five-game point streak.
Tyler Myers scored twice and Brandon Tanev added a goal and an assist for the Jets (36-19-4), who are 2-3-2 in their last seven games. Myers and Tanev each scored a short-handed goal.
“We are concerned,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said of the poor stretch. “Going into tonight, it was the first five-game block of the season where we’re under .500 at 2-3. So yeah, you’re concerned.”
The losses include a 4-1 defeat against Colorado last Thursday and a 5-2 loss to the Senators last weekend.
“Every team goes through a tough stretch at some point,” Myers said. “We’re facing a little adversity right now. We’ll get our life back and finish (with) a good last 20 (games) here.”
Anders Nilsson stopped 23 shots for the Senators, who still occupy the bottom of the NHL standings.
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Laurent Brossoit made 37 saves for the Jets, a week after he was in net in Ottawa for last weekend’s loss.
“Great game,” Nilsson said. “To be able to be the better team for a full 60 minutes against a team like Winnipeg, it shows a really strong effort from us and a really good team game, so we definitely deserved the two points tonight.”
Winnipeg led 2-1 after the first period and it was tied 2-2 after two.
Myers scored his second goal, and seventh of the season, through traffic at 14:01 of the third to tie it 3-3. Nilsson then made a huge pad save on a close Blake Wheeler shot with just over a minute remaining in regulation.
The game began with special teams in the spotlight.
Jets defenceman Dmitry Kulikov was given a double minor for high sticking at 1:19, setting the stage for Stone’s power-play goal 19 seconds later.
Stone’s name has been mentioned in trade rumours with the Jets.
The Winnipeg native was asked if he heard a few chants of “We want Stone” from the crowd. He replied he didn’t.
When asked if he heard some cheers after his goal, he said, “That was my mom, I think, probably.”
The Jets replied to Stone’s goal with Tanev’s short-handed marker at 2:56.
However, before Kulikov had fully exited the penalty box, he played the puck and was dinged for interference at 3:40.
Tanev then set up Myers for his short-handed goal at 5:33.
The 2:37 time span between the short-handed goals is the fastest in franchise history. The previous mark was 4:44 by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2003.
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The Jets had a pair of potential goals in the second period wiped out after reviews.
A Winnipeg play midway through the period ended with a ruling the puck didn’t cross the goal line when Ottawa defenceman Brady Tkachuk slid into the net with the puck alongside his body.
After Balcers tipped in a Dzingel point shot at 13:53 to tie it 2-2, Jets defenceman Ben Chiarot scored, but Winnipeg was called for offside on the play.
Ottawa ended the period with a two-man advantage that carried over into the third after Jets forward Mathieu Perreault was called for trip at 18:48, and defenceman Jacob Trouba went to the box for a double minor for high sticking at 19:16.
The Senators capitalized with Duchene’s goal 47 seconds into the third, with one second remaining in the two-man advantage. Duchene and Stone each have 27 goals this season.
Winnipeg begins a three-game road trip in Colorado on Wednesday. Ottawa plays in Chicago on Monday.
Notes: Matt Duchene has seven points (six goals, one assist) in his past six games … Winnipeg was without defencemen Dustin Byfuglien (lower body) and Joe Morrow, who was put on injured reserve (lower body) after last Thursday’s loss to Colorado.
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