Winnipeg Jets' Mathieu Perreault celebrates his game winning shootout goal against the Ottawa Senators during NHL hockey action in Ottawa on Saturday, Nov 8, 2014.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Mathieu Perreault is still looking for his first goal of the season — sort of.
Perreault scored in the sixth round of the shootout as the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Saturday night. The fact that as a shootout goal it won't count on the stats page doesn't bother him.
"It was a great feeling," said Perreault of the only goal scored in the shootout. "I was looking at what the other guys were doing and they were all coming in with speed and trying to rip it so I just tried to slow it down a bit and pick a corner.
"Luckily it went in."
Perreault's timely goal helped the Jets to improve to 6-0-2 over their past eight games.
Although Perreault's shootout heroics won the game, goaltending was the story of the night. Ottawa's Craig Anderson and Winnipeg's Ondrej Pavelec stopped a combined 73-of-75 shots through regulation and overtime.
Toby Enstrom had the goal for the Jets (8-5-2) and Pavelec made 37 saves plus six more in the shootout including a huge glove save off David Legwand.
Chis Neil scored in regulation for the Senators (7-3-3) while Anderson made 36 saves and denied five skaters in the shootout.
"I don't like the shootouts at all. Especially ones that go that long," Pavelec said. "We found a way to win and it continues what we've been doing lately. It was a tough game for us. (Anderson) has been great for Ottawa all season long and he was great again tonight. It was a battle. It's all about the two points and we got them."
Neither team was able to break the 1-1 tie as they entered the third period with both goaltenders shining.
Legwand did have Pavelec at his mercy with less than five minutes to play in regulation.
With Mark Stuart off for tripping and the Senators enjoying their second power play of the game, the puck came to Legwand at the side of the goal but he fanned on his shot with Pavelec out of position.
Mike Hoffman had a great opportunity in overtime to give Ottawa the win, but his quick shot from the slot was stopped by the quicker right pad from Pavelec.
Moments later, Erik Karlsson took out Jets' forward Evander Kane with a hip check at the blue-line that drew a rise out of the crowd and a long gaze from Kane at Karlsson.
"We had opportunities in overtime to put them away and I think we gave ourselves a chance to win and that's all you can ask for," Neil explained.
"When you get to a shootout it's a 50-50 coin flip and obviously (Anderson) gave us a chance to win. We weren't able to bury one and it makes it tough when you can't score goals."
Neil opened the scoring when he capitalized on the Senators' only power play of the first period by beating Pavelec with a wrist shot on the short side at 11:48.
The Jets used their only power play of the period to tie the game six minutes later when Enstrom's point shot hit the post before finding the back of the net behind Anderson.
Winnipeg outshot Ottawa 14-7 in the first period. It was Anderson that kept the game tied going into the second period. He had allowed just one goal in the two previous games heading into Saturday.
"It was one of those nights where both teams were playing pretty solid five-on-five and limiting the opportunities. At one point it both teams seemed to be throwing everything at the net and trying to generate things," Anderson said.
"It's a credit to both teams the way they played defensively and not allowing second and third opportunities. One of those games would be nice every once in a while to have few shots, but you have to look at the quality scoring chances and that's the key number. It doesn't matter what the shot clock is, it's what kind of chances you're giving up and we played really solid defensively and didn't give up a whole lot so I'm proud of the guys for doing that."
The Senators outshot the Jets 12-10 in a scoreless second period that saw both goaltenders shine as they each made key saves.
Notes: Chris Phillips, Bobby Ryan and Alex Caisson were all scratches for the Senators on Saturday. Adam Pardy and Matt Halischuk were scratches for the JetsThe Senators wrap up a four-game homestand Sunday against the Toronto Maple LeafsThe game was the first of five straight on the road for the Jets, who next play in Montreal TuesdayFour of Clarke MacArthur's team-leading seven goals for the Senators have come on the power playKyle Turris is one assist shy of 100 for his career. He has 72 with the SenatorsJets forward Andrew Ladd is tied for the NHL lead in game-opening-goals with fourThe Jets currently have the longest drought in the NHL without a hat trick. The last one was recorded by Eric Boulton on Dec. 18, 2010 when they were still the Atlanta Thrashers.