In three-on-three overtime, anything can happen. With so much open space out there, the smallest mistake can quickly turn against you, ending up in the back of your own net.
There’s no real playbook to winning in the extra frame.
Sure, from overtime to overtime you see similar things such as teams carrying the puck out of the offensive zone to regroup, trying to create something new that wasn’t previously there.
We’ve also been accustomed to teams rolling with two forwards and a defenseman as their three-man overtime trio. But in the Jets’ last two overtime contests, head coach Paul Maurice has opted to roll with trios of three forwards.
Oddly enough, it’s worked.
“I think it was the first time for me today. It’s worked the two times we’ve done it this year,” said Nikolaj Ehlers who got his first taste of the three forward overtime trio Saturday night.
The Jets won the opening faceoff in overtime and controlled the play from there, not allowing the Canadiens any offensive zone time before Paul Stastny pushed the puck over the goal line after a shot by Ehlers trickled past goalie Jake Allen 36 seconds into the frame.
“When you have the puck it’s a lot easier, I haven’t experienced not having the puck in overtime when you’re playing with three forwards, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Ehlers. “I think no matter who you go out there with you’re gonna get a chance. Three-on-three overtime is a lot of fun.”
Joining Ehlers and Stastny was Kyle Connor, an offensive trio that with as well as the desperate Canadiens played on Saturday, wouldn’t give up their puck possession in overtime.
“I think overtime is a crap shoot, especially three-on-three, right? I think you’ve got to go out there and just play aggressive,” said Stastny. “If you want you can play a five minute overtime and not have once chance either way, just sit back. Or, once there’s one chance, you kind of trade chances.”
The reason why the Jets were able to withstand a heavy push from the Canadiens, putting the Jets in a position to even take the game to overtime was undoubtedly the play of goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
“I thought today Montreal was the better team, we got lucky we got a couple of posts, [Hellebuyck] was unbelievable for us,” said Stastny. “He didn’t give up a lot of rebounds, he was fighting through traffic and controlling everything. Obviously he’s the reason why we got two points tonight.”
The Canadiens finished the contest with 78 shot attempts, 41 landing on goal. Hellebuyck stopped all but one in the 2-1 overtime victory.
“I was able to get into a good flow, I though the guys in front of me blocked a lot of key shots and really controlled where the shots were coming from,” said Hellebuyck. “Not only that, but we were controlling the rebounds. I think the whole team’s defense was solid down the middle tonight.
It was a contest where the Canadiens probably deserved a better result under interim head coach Dominique Ducharme, but the Jets remained resilient, and certainly grinded their way to two points.
“You got to go through a little adversity, you’ve got to fail a little bit and you’ve got to realize what it feels like to lose and lose tight games or big games,” said Hellebuyck.
“You’ve got to remember how bad It feels and maybe that gives you a little extra boost and a little extra energy when you really need it.”
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