Florida Panthers Comeback Bid Falls Short Against NHL-Best Jets

The Florida Panthers did all they could to roar back from a three-goal deficit, but fell to the Winnipeg Jets, 6-3.

The Florida Panthers came within inches, multiple times over, of a two-game sweep of the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets, but could not get the job done.

A third-period comeback led by two power play goals fell just short as the Jets held on to defeat the Panthers, 6-3, on the back of a hat trick from Mark Scheifele and two shorthanded, empty-net goals by Morgan Barron to close things out.

As hard as Florida pushed to erase a three-goal deficit, they just could not get over the edge, hitting the post thee different times in the third period before an offensive zone hooking penalty from Eetu Luostarinen sent it to the penalty kill 30 seconds after Sam Reinhart made it a one-goal game.

“It was that kind of game,” coach Paul Maurice said. “It never felt like you were out of it. There was an awful lot of good offense by both teams

The Panthers killed off the penalty, but Winnipeg’s league-best power play kept pouring it on —pinning them in their own zone for another 16 seconds after the penalty expired — before Scheifele ripped a one-timer off a feed from Kyle Connor to restore the two-goal lead.

"It just goes to show this game is a game of inches,” A.J. Greer said. “A couple of mistakes cost us big. We’re obviously not happy with the result, but you love to see the fight again and the resiliency in the third period."

Matthew Tkachuk sent a wrist shot from the point past Connor Hellebuyck with 3:32 to go to give the Panthers some hope — and a tripping penalty on Vladislav Namestnikov gave them even more just over a minute later — but that hope was quickly dashed.

Barron quickly put out the fire for a Winnipeg penalty kill that was struggling against a hot Florida power play with two quick shorthanded goals on the empty net (his first two goals all season) to put the game away.

So it goes.

“We were OK tonight,” Maurice said. “We weren’t great, we weren’t bad, we were OK.”

The Panthers had a chance to put their stamp on this game well before they started playing from behind.

Florida led 8-3 in shots to start the game but could not capitalize on a litany of first-period opportunities.

Connor flipped the script with 5:48 to go in the first, walking right on into the slot and roofing a backhand shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to give Winnipeg the early lead. Scheifele then slipped a wrist shot underneath Bobrovsky’s glove just over three minutes later to give the Jets a two-goal cushion.

On the final two shots of the second period, Winnipeg sucked away all of the momentum Florida built up early in the first.

The Jets continued to pour it on in the second period, with Scheifele scoring his second of three goals on the power play with 4:19 to go in a period they dominated in up to that point.

A.J. Greer brought the Panthers back within two goals with a shot that pinballed in off Winnipeg captain Adam Lowry that gave them the life they needed to spark their comeback attempt in the third.

In the end, it came up short, but that tends to happen as a team as dominant as Winnipeg has been.

On paper, this marks Florida’s third regulation loss in its past four games, but this one has a bit of a better taste than the previous two.

In the two-game set against New Jersey, the Panthers let a mountain of mistakes snowball on them as the Devils routed them in third periods where it seemed like they had given up hope.

It was apparent that it was not the case in Winnipeg.

“I don’t think we gave up a ton 5-on-5,” Tkachuk said. “Just every time we felt we were getting closer, they just put one in and got the momentum back,” Tkachuk said.

“It was an even game for the most part … A couple plays you want to change and then the game is over. It was a hard fought two games by two good teams, it just would’ve been nice to get this one.”

Florida will have a chance to get the ship moving in the right direction again on Thursday, when they will head to Chicago and take on the lowly Blackhawks.

With the team remaining a point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, that ship likely does not require a whole lot of maneuvering.