Three things - Jets clinch playoff berth, beat Caps in OT

WINNIPEG - In front of a sold-out crowd at Canada Life Centre, the Winnipeg Jets clinched a playoff berth with a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals. Nikolaj Ehlers scored the game winning goal, Mason Appleton and Josh Morrissey also scored for Winnipeg who are now 49-19-4. The Jets are one point behind Washington for first in the NHL and opened an eight-point lead on Dallas for first in the Central, the Stars have two games in hand. Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for his league leading 41^st win of the season, Winnipeg will host New Jersey on Friday.

HEAVYWEIGHT TILT GOES TO OT

The top two teams met once again in a rematch of the 5-4 overtime win by Winnipeg back on February 1. Josh Morrissey ended the game that night and Tuesday evening, it was Nikolaj Ehlers turn. Washington controlled most of the play through overtime and Aliaksei Protas rang a shot off the goal post but while the Caps were on a line change, Dylan Samberg hit Ehlers with a perfect pass and the Danish forward finished off the game. Winnipeg (72 GP) required its fewest games in franchise history to secure a playoff spot during an 82-game season, eclipsing its previous best of 75 games set in 2017-18 and matched in 2018-19.

"Perfect pass. At first, I was thinking, 'What are you doing putting that on the wall?',” said Ehlers.

“But when you put it that perfectly on the wall and off the wall, yeah, it couldn't have worked out better.”

PK GETS JOB DONE

The jets penalty kill came up huge in the second period with the game tied at one, Cole Perfetti went to the box for tripping and Winnipeg shut down the Capitals power play. Then at 14:32, Luke Schenn took an unsportsmanlike penalty, despite two good looks from Alex Ovechkin, Winnipeg killed off that minor as well. That opened the door for some late heroics from Mason Appleton, Nino Niederreiter spotted Appleton wide open on the right side and the 29-year-old beat Thompson high on the glove side for a 2-1 Jets lead.

THE GR8 CHASE

The script Tuesday night was similar to the first meeting between these two teams, Alex Ovechkin tied the game at 4-4 and Winnipeg went on to win in overtime. This evening, the Jets led 2-1 until the 16-minute mark of the third when Ovechkin fired home goal number 889 and is now six goals away from becoming the all-time goal scoring leader in NHL history. It was his 150th game-tying goal — already the most in NHL history and 11 more than Wayne Gretzky (139) who has the second-most.