WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The schedule may have said Game 45, but it felt like the playoffs for John Tavares.
And when the Islanders’ young star scored the winner yesterday in a 5-4 shootout victory, the Isles put a serious dent in the Jets’ playoff hopes.
“It’s April. There’s a team right behind us. There’s a lot on the line,” Tavares said. “I think we knew it would have a playoff atmosphere. You could sense it in the locker room before the game, and during the game.”
Tavares and Brad Boyes both beat Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec in the shootout, while Winnipeg captain Andrew Ladd replied against Evgeni Nabokov.
The win lifted the Islanders past the Senators and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 53 points. The Leafs, who are in fifth with 55 points, beat Ottawa, 4-1, last night.
“Good two points for us,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “It was loud, it was a great atmosphere and it was one of the quickest games I’ve been involved in, so it was a track meet for sure.”
The Jets have 49 points and are now a point back of the eighth-place Rangers, who were idle yesterday but have a game in hand.
Winnipeg heads on the road for games against Buffalo tomorrow and a key Tuesday matchup with the Capitals (50 points), who played in Montreal last night.
Nabokov made 24 saves, while Pavelec faced 33 shots as the Jets’ winning streak stopped at five games.
There was plenty of nail-biting for the sellout crowd, with the Islanders ahead 2-1 after the first period and the score tied 3-3 heading to the third.
Michael Grabner redirected an Andrew McDonald feed past Pavelec to give the Isles a 4-3 lead at 9:13, but Bryan Little tied it with 2:01 left — seven seconds after Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky was called for interference. Little made a head’s up move on the play. A rebound sent the puck toward his left skate and he kicked it over to his stick before beating Nabokov.
“It was an emotional game,” Little said. “We put everything we had into it and kept fighting our way back into the game.”
The Islanders got a goal and assist each from Frans Nielsen and Josh Bailey, while Matt Martin also scored. Kyle Okposo and Visnovsky both chipped in with a pair of assists.
Kyle Wellwood scored a pair of goals for Winnipeg, while Zach Bogosian, who left the game late in the third after a heavy hit, added the other.
“It was just a team effort,” Okposo said. “It was a really good hockey game, a playoff-type atmosphere, I think. There were a lot of momentum swings throughout the game.”
Jets head coach Claude Noel found a positive in the Jets gaining a point.
“I think it’s a point gained for me,” he said. “We chased the game. It was a difficult game to play. We knew the opponent; they played the way we thought.”
Noel had pulled Pavelec as soon as Visnovsky got called for interference with 2:08 left in the third.
“They pull their goalie, they win a faceoff, they score,” Capuano said. “I mean, that’s a good team, that’s one of the best teams that we’ve played all year.”