Panthers Fall To Jets

     The Florida Panthers lost to the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Thursday night at BB&T Center. The Panthers began a stretch in which they will play 14 of their next 16 games at home.
     It was the first time since the 2017-18 season that the Winnipeg Jets visited South Florida. Both clubs played two games of the NHL Global Series in Helsinki, Finland in November 2018.
     There was no scoring during first period. Winnipeg(11-8-1) changed the story in the second at the 3:45 mark. Patrik Laine angled a pass from the blue line to Mathieu Perreault on the right wing. He sent the puck to the high slot and Josh Morrisey snapped a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky for a 1-0 lead.
     Florida(9-5-5) evened the contest on a power-play goal with 4:52 left in the second. Keith Yandle fed a pass to Mike Hoffman at the top of the zone. His slapshot was saved by Laurent Brossoit, however Aleksander Barkov flipped in the rebound with a backhand shot from the blue paint for his sixth goal of the campaign.
     In the third period, the Jets regained the lead at 4:28. Mark Scheifele poked the puck away from Mike Matheson on the end wall. Laine recovered the puck in the left corner, backhanded the puck to the middle and Nikolaj Ehlers blasted a one-time slap shot from the edge of the left circle for his eighth goal of the year.
     The Panthers tied it up again 2-2 at the 7:13 mark when they peppered the net with numerous shooting attempts. Brett Connolly released a shot from the slot that was stopped, Brian Boyle followed with a wrist shot from the top of the crease which was saved and then Vincent Trocheck put in the rebound from the left of the crease for just his second goal of the season.
     Winnipeg took their third lead of the contest with 5:08 to go. Kyle Connor fired a snap shot from the top right circle which was saved by Bobrovsky. Laine swept the rebound from the right side of the crease across and Scheifele put in a forehand shot into the cage.
     The Jets made it 4-2 with 2:58 left in the third. A slap shot from Tucker Poolman on the right point was redirected in by Adam Lowry from the low slot.
     The Cats closed it to 4-3 with 1:34 remaining. Mike Hoffman released a slap shot from the blue line and Trocheck deflected in the puck from the low slot for his second goal of the contest.