Coming off back-to-back losses for the first time all season, the Winnipeg Jets improved to 16-3 Tuesday night thanks to a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers.
Mark Scheifele recorded a hat trick and the Jets fended off a late comeback attempt to beat the Stanley Cup champions in the rematch after getting schooled by the Panthers just a few days earlier.
“We didn’t like the way we played in Florida,” said Scheifele. “It’s just a sign of a lot of good character in this room is that we wanted to bounce back. We wanted to have a good game in front of our home crowd before we go on the road, for feels like forever. So, it was just a great all-around effort by everyone.”
Scheifele is now enjoying a 10-game home point streak which is just one game shy of Kyle Connor’s franchise record.
The Jets took a three-goal lead in the second period before the Panthers scored back-to-back goals to pull within one. The Jets re-took the two-goal advantage only for the Panthers to answer back with three minutes left in the final frame and the goalie pulled. But Morgan Barron scored two different empty netters shorthanded to end their short two-game losing skid.
The Jets are now 12-0 on the season when leading after two periods.
“It’s huge for us to kinda be able to close out those games,” said Barron. “And it’s something we’re still going to continue to learn to do and hopefully it doesn’t get to that point, but a lot of guys stepped up.”
The Panthers hit the post/crossbar three times in the final period.
Five Jets players had multi-point nights in the win. It was Barron’s first career multi-goal game, while Scheifele netted his ninth career hat trick. And it was a night and day difference from their performance in Florida on the weekend.
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“I just thought our battle level went way up tonight throughout,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said. “We knew it was going to have to be that way. They’re a heavy team and they play hard and they come at you. I thought we did a fantastic job of turning the tide and going and playing our game and getting out and after them.”
The Jets improved to 9-1 on home ice this season in front of their third sellout crowd of the campaign.
Neither team could find the back of the net as the first period rolled before Winnipeg got on the board thanks to their leading scorer.
A loose puck in the Florida end was corralled by Conner in the slot before the sniper outwaited Sergei Bobrovsky and roofed a backhand shot for his 12th of the season at the 14:13 mark.
A few minutes later, Winnipeg’s top line put in a dominant shit in the Panthers’ end and the crowd roared with delight before the Panthers briefly cleared it but the Jets weren’t done. Josh Morrissey got the puck up the ice to Gabriel Vilardi who dropped it to Scheifele, and he wired a wrister under the glove of Bobrovsky to make it 2-0.
Winnipeg carried that lead into the second period despite getting outshot 8-5 in the first.
The Jets got a golden opportunity to expand their lead on a rare two-minute 5-on-3 just over four minutes into the second. Uvis Balinskis tripped Scheifele and before the Panthers touched the puck, Evan Rodrigues roughed Dylan DeMelo, but Winnipeg couldn’t cash in, unable to get anything dangerous on goal.
The Jets killed off a penalty of their own before earning another power play chance and this time, they made no mistake.
The top unit looked more crisp on this opportunity, culminating in a great play by Nikolaj Ehlers as he patiently held the puck and skated up the zone before zipping a perfect cross-ice pass that Scheifele blasted home to make it 3-0 at the 15:41 mark.
Before the period expired, Florida got on the board thanks to a lucky break. A point shot from A.J. Greer was going wide but it deflected off a stick in the slot before ricocheting off the skate of Adam Lowry and into an open net.
Winnipeg outshot Florida 11-7 in the second and carried a 16-15 edge into the third.
After each team hit a post in the opening six minutes of the third, Florida got their second power play of the night and they made good on it. The Panthers held the puck in the Winnipeg end for almost 90 seconds after Cole Perfetti went off for hooking, earning a few good looks before Matthew Tkachuk fed Sam Reinhart in front of the net and he buried it to make it 3-2.
Just 30 seconds later, Winnipeg got a power play look of their own and while the top unit couldn’t score despite having the puck in Florida’s end for the full two minutes, they did cash in just six seconds after the penalty expired.
Other than Eetu Luostarinen coming out of the box, everyone on the ice was exhausted but Connor found enough in the tank to take a pass in the corner and drive it towards the net before seaming a pass to Scheifele back-door that he knocked home to make it 4-2, securing the hat trick.
Florida went back on the man advantage with 4:04 to go and Paul Maurice decided to pull Bobrovsky to make it a 6-on-4. The move paid off as a shot from Tkachuk on the half-wall beat Connor Hellebuyck through a maze of bodies with 3:22 remaining.
Winnipeg took another penalty with 2:15 left and again the Panthers pulled the goalie to make it a 6-on-4 but this time the Jets got the puck and Barron banked a shot off the boards from his own end, scoring into the empty net to make it 5-3 with 1:37 to go.
The Panthers kept Bobrovsky on the bench and Barron added another empty netter just 21 seconds after his first.
Hellebuyck picked up the win in goal, turning aside 20 of 23 shots.
The Jets now embark on a lengthy six-game road trip starting Friday in Pittsburgh.