WINNIPEG — It was Andrew Ladd’s first pre-season game and he knocked some rust off at the right time.
Clawing back from a 3-0 deficit against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, the Winnipeg Jets captain scored the tying goal with 52 seconds left in regulation when he tipped in a Tyler Myers’ shot.
Jets centre Mark Scheifele then fired the winner between Andrew Hammond’s pads two minutes into 3-on-3 overtime for a 4-3 victory.
"I liked how we stuck with it and found a way to battle back into it," said Ladd, who also had an assist.
It was the first pre-season win for the Jets (1-2-2), who also got goals from Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford. Ondrej Pavelec made 22 saves.
Ottawa (1-3-2) had a 3-0 lead heading into the third period after goals from Milan Michalek, Zack Smith and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Michalek also had an assist.
"A 3-0 lead going into the third, you know that can’t happen to us in the (regular) season," Michalek said.
"We were trying to play with the lead instead of trying to score the fourth goal."
Craig Anderson started in net for the Senators, but after stopping 17 shots he made the planned switch with Hammond 9:06 into the second period. Hammond stopped eight of the 12 shots he faced.
Ladd and centre Bryan Little were playing their first pre-season game because of minor injuries.
"It probably didn’t help it was our first action," Ladd said. "Our game speed wasn’t quite there the first couple of periods."
The pair began the game skating on a line with right-winger Alexander Burmistrov, but head coach Paul Maurice juggled his lines as his team fell behind.
"Certainly it’s a lot more positive feeling right now than if we kind of just mailed it in the third period," Wheeler said.
"That’s the one thing we kind of hang our hat on, is that regardless we’re a proud group, a group with a lot of passion and a group that plays the game the right way.
"We’ve been just kind of like a half step off here the last few games and I think the third period we started getting things back on track."
Ottawa head coach Dave Cameron said he thought it was his team’s "best effort" of the pre-season.
"I didn’t like the result. More good things than negative and lots of stuff to build on," he said.
The Senators had a police escort from the airport to the MTS Centre after mechanical problems in Ottawa delayed their arrival in Winnipeg.
When the team got to the rink, they had to get dressed for warmup right away.
"I love Winnipeg," Cameron said with a smile. "It’s nice to get a police escort knowing you’re not going to jail. I enjoyed that immensely."
The Jets are home to the Flames on Thursday and travel to Calgary for a Saturday game. Ottawa hosts Montreal on Thursday and visits the Canadiens on Saturday.
