WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- After the Winnipeg Jets erased a two-goal deficit to the Washington Capitals with a pair of goals late in the third period, everybody in the MTS Centre believed the game was headed to overtime.

Nobody bothered to tell Jay Beagle.

The Capitals fourth-line center won a crucial offensive zone face-off with 35 seconds left on the clock and simply out-whacked the Jets defenders in the slot to slide the winning goal behind Connor Hellebuyck five seconds later, propelling Washington to a 3-2 victory and its third win in a row.

"I won the draw back and (defenseman John Carlson) whiffs on it," Beagle said. "I tried to whack at it and it hopped over my stick. I was pushing laterally and just tried to slide it through and it went in. It was one of those goals where if you keep whacking at it, eventually it goes in."

His coach, Barry Trotz, was particularly happy to see one of his hardest-working players rewarded for his efforts with his first goal of the campaign.

"One of our best guys the last couple of games as been Beags," Trotz said. "He's one of the guys on the team who everybody respects. He comes in and competes at a high level every night. It was good for him to get a goal there."

Washington goalie Braden Holtby made 43 saves for the win, while Hellebuyck kicked out 24 shots. The Capitals improved to 6-2-1 for while the Jets fell further below .500 at 4-6-0.

Trotz was less enthused about surrendering a two-goal lead in a four-and-a-half-minute span in the third period, though.

Jets center Mark Scheifele started the comeback following some hard work down low by right winger Blake Wheeler and rifled home his own rebound with less than seven minutes left to play. It was his fifth goal of the season.

Center Adam Lowry tied things up with his first of the year at the 17:35 mark when he was able to sneak behind the Capitals defense and outwait Holtby on a deke.

"They're a really good team and they came at us with a real intense effort," Trotz said. "We had to match their intensity. I don't think we played with the urgency that they did, especially in the second half of the game."

"I thought when we got our second goal we stopped playing offensively a little bit and then we got on our heels. They scored a goal and got some energy off the building. Then we lost a few battles and they tied it up. We let the two-goal lead dissipate and I thought it was going to go to overtime."

Up until the final few minutes, the Capitals had followed the blueprint to a perfect road game -- sneak in a couple goals on seemingly-nothing plays, take the crowd out of the game early, forecheck like crazy and play a zone defense that would make Vince Lombardi proud.

Defenseman Karl Alzner got the visitors on the board with just 44 seconds remaining in the first period when his wrist shot from the point beat a screened Hellebuyck high to the glove side.

Washington took a 2-0 lead when center Evgeny Kuznetsov carried the puck into the Jets zone and centered it to left winger Marcus Johansson, who was left alone in front of Hellebuyck. His shot slipped past the Jets goalie but didn't cross the goal line until Hellebuyck closed his legs while in the butterfly. His sixth goal of the year came at 8:15 of the second period.

Jets coach Paul Maurice was surprisingly upbeat considering the disappointing outcome.

"I think there are some things we can do better to make more of that," Maurice said. "You're talking about a team (Washington) that gives up 25 shots a night on average, so there are clearly a lot of good things (that we did tonight)."

"All is not fair in this league and (we need to) try to replicate that game on Thursday night," Wheeler said. "It's really frustrating. We've had some looks, some offensive zone time, but it hasn't resulted in goals. It can really wear on a team, especially on a team of guys that are used to have some success offensively. Sometimes you got to will it to happen."

Holtby admitted he was surprised to see so much galvanized rubber directed his way and he knows his teammates will have to do a better job for the rematch with the Jets on Thursday night in Washington.

"I wasn't quite used to that," Holtby said. "One of the hard games is the last one of a road trip. We're going to have to be better. If they had a little luck on their side, they probably would have come out on top in this one, and we know that. But we battled it out. Sometimes they're not pretty."

NOTES: Jets D Mark Stuart is the latest in sick bay after suffering a lower-body injury on Sunday against Buffalo. Joining him in the press box were D Tyler Myers and C Marko Dano, who has yet to see any action since being recalled from the Manitoba Moose last week. ... Not in the line-up for Washington were D Taylor Chorney and LW Daniel Winnik.