Scheifele's hat trick helps jets to another win
After taking a 5-0 shellacking in Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday afternoon, Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele made sure it didn’t happen again.
Scheifele notched the ninth hat-trick of his career as the Jets defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 6-3 in front of a loud sell-out crowd of 15,225 at Canada Life Centre.
With the win, the Jets improved to 16-3-0 on the season and remained the No. 1 team overall in the National Hockey League.
“They played a fantastic game in Florida, they played hard and we had to up our game tonight,” said Scheifele who was overwhelmed by the Winnipeg crowd. “It’s an amazing atmosphere in here. The fans motivate us and I love this.”
It was an important bounce back after going 0-2-0 in Florida last week. After starting the season 15-1-0, the Jets were spanked 4-1 in Tampa and 5-0 in South Florida and were committed to playing well on Tuesday night at home.
"Obviously, you saw what happened in the third period the other night in their building; he was frustrated," head coach Scott Arniel said of Scheifele. "As our whole group was. He came out and was a leader. He led. When your best players can be your best players in games like that, it certainly helps you have success."
Both teams came out flying in the first period. Florida had a couple of great early chances but Hellebuyck stood his ground and the Jets battled back with a few chances of their own in the middle of the period.
Finally, after scoring only one goal in two games in the state of Florida last week, the Jets got on the board as Kyle Connor scored a Jean Beliveau – a backhand to the roof – to beat Sergei Bobrovsky and give the Jets a 1-0 advantage at 14:13.
The Jets took a 2-0 lead just a little more than three minutes later as Mark Scheifele took a pass from Gabriel Vilardi and drilled a wrist shot between Bobrovsky’s arm and body at 17:40. Josh Morrissey, playing in his 600th NHL game, also drew an assist.
In the second period, things started to get a little chippy and on the power play at 15:41, Nikolaj Ehlers fed Scheifele with a perfect cross-ice pass and Scheifele one-timed a slapper past a helpless Bobrovsky. Morrissey got the other assist as Scheifele scored his 11th of the season.
But Florida is indeed the defending Stanley Cup champion, and they don’t quit. Although down 3-0, they found themselves a little puck luck and it didn’t hurt the Panthers that Jets’ captain Adam Lowry had the worst one-minute sequence of his career.
With the Jets attacking, Mason Appleton hit Lowry with an absolutely perfect pass on the doorstep but even with a wide-open net, Lowry tipped it wide. Florida then brought the puck into the Winnipeg zone and after a low, seemingly innocent shot from the point that was stopped by the defence, the puck deflected off Lowry, who was standing at the corner of the goal, and the puck dribbled past Hellebuyck.
It should have been 4-0 Winnipeg, but hockey is a fickle master. A.J. Greer got credit for the Panthers’ goal that made it 3-1 and suddenly Winnipeg found itself engaged in a real argument once again.
In the third period, the Panthers took control early. After hitting two posts in the first seven minutes, Florida made it 3-2 on a power play at 7:10 as Sam Reinhart scored his 14th of the year from Matthew Tkachuk and Alexander Barkov.
But just when things started to look bleak, Scheifele took a gorgeous pass from Kyle Connor and just as a Florida penalty ended, he blasted a slapshot past Bobrovsky to complete the hat trick and make it 4-2. Ehlers also picked up an assist and the Jets had a two-goal lead with 10 minutes to play in regulation.
However, with 4:04 left to play in the third, Morrissey was called for tripping, a weak call but fully expected considering the Jets had one more power play than Florida. It was a penalty that changed the direction of the game.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice pulled his goalie and with six attackers against four defenders, Matthew Tkacuk fired a blistering shot past Hellebuyck at the 17:38 mark to make it a 4-3 game.
Then with 17:45 left in the game, the Jets were hit with another penalty as Vlad Namestnikov was called for tripping. Again Maurice pulled Brobrovsky and the Panthers went on the attack.
However, this time, the Jets got a break. Morgan Barron gained control of the puck in his own end and played a bank-shot off the boards that went right into the empty net. That gave Winnipeg a 5-3 lead, Lowry picked up an assist and Barron had his first goal of the season at 18:23.
But things got better for Barron and the Jets. At 18:44, with the Panthers attacking on the power play again, Barron picked up a loose puck in his own end and fired a shot straight into the empty Florida goal. In 21 seconds, Barron had his first two goals of the season, the final two goals of the game and had single-handedly fended off the last gasp of the Panthers.
"They just put one in and got the momentum right back," Matthew Tkachuk said. "So it was an even game for the most part. It's tough to lose that one when you fight back to get close and then you have a power play, and then feel like we have all the momentum there. And then just a couple plays that probably want to change and then it's game’s over. So, it's a hard fought two games by two good teams, in my opinion. It just would have been nice to get this one."
The three stars were Scheifele, Connor and Barron. Not one surprise.
The Jets outshot Florida 27-23, but Florida outhit Winnipeg 16-10. The Panthers also won 57 per cent of the faceoffs. Still, thanks to Scheifele’s hat-trick and Barron’s dramatic finish, the Jets came away with their 16th win in 19 starts this season.
"As a team, we didn’t like the way that we played in Florida, so it’s just a sign of a lot of good character in this room that we wanted to bounce back and we wanted to have a good game in front of our home crowd before we go on the road for what feels like forever," Scheifele said. "It was a great all-around effort by everyone.”
Winnipeg now heads back out onto the road and plays its next games away from Canada Life Centre, starting with Pittsburgh on Friday night, then Nashville on Saturday and Minnesota on Monday.
The next two weeks will be an incredible test.
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