Jets sweep through Florida with win over Lightning

TAMPA - Not many teams have enjoyed a turbulence free path through the state of Florida, but the Winnipeg Jets navigated that flight path to perfection.
First, they earned a 5-4 overtime win over Florida on Saturday, and they followed it up with a 3-2 regulation victory in Tampa Bay on Sunday.
It was exactly the way Brenden Dillon wanted to celebrate his 800th game in the National Hockey League.
"Big win for us," said Dillon. "Super proud and happy to get that. A young Brenden Dillon was just hoping for one of these and here we are, 800 later. Just super fortunate and happy to be here."
Morgan Barron's second period goal proved to be the game-winner, with Nate Schmidt and Nino Niederreiter also finding the back of the net. The most important part of the two wins, though, is the four points that gives the Jets in the standings.

"It's a real desperate time for us for points," said associate coach Scott Arniel. "We have to keep pace with everybody in our division and our conference. We knew it was going to be a tough trip. And so far, it's off to a great start."
Winnipeg came into the night pretty banged up after the game in Florida. Josh Morrissey wasn't able to play due to a lower-body injury, but Adam Lowry - who left Saturday's contest in the final five minutes with a lower-body injury of his own - was able to play.
His line with Barron and Mason Appleton spent the majority of the night against Tampa's top line of Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov, and held them off the scoresheet.
"I thought we were solid. I don't know about our best," said Barron. "I think there's still a little more we can do. We created some chances and we held the zone defensively. They're a good team so they're going to create some chances."
Alex Killorn put Tampa ahead 1-0 with a trickler through Connor Hellebuyck 79 seconds into the first, but the Jets were able to get back on even footing just under nine minutes later.
Nate Schmidt's point shot, a low wrister, grazed off former Jet Michael Eyssimont before getting past Andrei Vasilevskiy through the five hole. Schmidt's seventh of the season came with assists from Logan Stanley and Saku Maenalanen, and leaves Schmidt just two back of his career high of nine goals from 2018-19.

Winnipeg's power play earned the squad a 2-1 lead just a minute into the second, as Niederreiter made a nifty move in front and tucked home his 21st of the season, beating Vasilevskiy five-hole. Mark Scheifele's assist on the goal was his 60th point of the season, the eighth straight year he's hit that mark.
"With a goaltender like Vasilevskiy, you have to have traffic and you have to have traffic and you have to have bodies around the net front," said Arniel. "Part of the game plan was to get to him, to get down in there and put pucks into his feet and kind of hope that some of the chaos happens from there."
Barron made it 3-1 at 9:04 of the second, as he followed up a rush opportunity and buried a rebound off a Dillon chance in front. Barron's seventh of the season withstood a coach's challenge for goaltender interference, but it was determined that Dillon didn't interfere with Vasilevskiy, and the goal stood.
"I saw some replays on the bench. Those ones are pretty tough to overturn," said Dillon. "You sometimes just never know how it's going to go but it turns out to be the game winner and that's awesome."
For Barron, he was just happy to join the rush and see the puck sitting there, and a wide open net in front of him.
"I've been waiting for that bounce for a little while. It was nice it came," said Barron.

However, Tampa snatched momentum back by scoring a shorthanded goal on the ensuing Jets power play. Anthony Cirelli got behind the Jets defence and beat Hellebuyck on the glove side for his 10th goal of the season to cut Winnipeg's lead to 3-2.
That was the last puck to beat Hellebuyck, who made 33 saves on 35 shots just one night after stopping 44 of 48 in Florida.
"He's the best in the world for a reason," Barron said. "He just sticks to his process and we have full faith in him. He made some huge saves for us down the stretch tonight. Again, really good team, they have some confident shooters. But I'll take Bucky before any of them."
Hellebuyck was also aa big part of a 5-on-3 penalty kill the Jets had in the second to keep the score at 3-2. Overall, it was a huge response for the Jets penalty kill after allowing three goals the night before.
"That's one of the toughest 5-on-3 units to face there, that Tampa Bay team," said Barron. "The guys did a great job staying in shot lanes and just watching from the bench yelling because there's always somebody that seems like they're open but guys did such a great job of extending out, getting in the shooting lanes and then retreating back and going against the next guy."

In the third, the Jets mostly kept the Lightning from the net front area, with Winnipeg holding a 5-3 edge in high-danger chances according to Natural Stat Trick. Tampa hit a post in the final minute, but that's as close as they would come.
"The focus in that time frame is that we can't just sit back on our heels," said Barron. "With a team that good, you just can't sit on your heels the whole period, regardless how good a team you are at defending. That's going to be the goal for us. Good teams are able to hold those leads."
And the Jets did just that. Now, but they know they can't sit back. They have another tough test to close out the road trip in the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday before coming home to take on Boston at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.
"We wanted to come into this one hoping for six points so the fact that we've got the first four, we're confident in our group," said Dillon. "We're going to have to find ways to win. Injuries, we can't use any excuses for us. Tonight, everybody stepped up."