Panthers hand Jets eighth straight loss

One night after shaking up his forward lines by separating Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel made more changes to his lineup, opting to dress 11 forwards and seven defencemen. He also turned to Nico Daws for his first start in a Jets uniform, just one week after the goaltender arrived in Winnipeg from New Jersey.

Daws played well making 33 saves but Anton Lundell scored his first career hat trick leading the Florida Panthers past the Jet 5-2 on Friday night in Sunrise. Kyle Connor and Morgan Barron scored for Winnipeg who have now dropped eight straight games (0-6-2).

Considering what happened in Tampa last night in the second period, head coach Scott Arniel liked what he saw for most of the game against the Panthers.

"We came out and we battled. That one was a lot closer to how we need to play for 60 minutes. There were a lot of 50-50 puck battles that we came out on the right side of them, that we hadn’t done the last time we played Florida (on Tuesday) or even in the first two periods (on Thursday) against Tampa," said Arniel.

"But, now we’ve got to get over the hump, find a way. Keep that work ethic, keep that compete going and then find a way to get the two points.”

The opening period began with plenty of emotion as Tyrell Bauer and Bokondji Imama dropped the gloves for an extended tilt, drawing stick taps from both benches in appreciation.

The game's first goal came at 18:15, with Viggo Björck serving a penalty. The Panthers continued their success on the power play against Winnipeg as Sam Reinhart worked his way out of the corner and found enough room to beat Nico Daws to the far side, giving Florida a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

Florida doubled its lead just 2:38 into the second period. Anton Lundell carried the puck into the Winnipeg zone and had his initial shot blocked but quickly recovered the puck and fired a second attempt past Nico Daws to make it 2-0 Panthers.

The Jets had a golden opportunity to snap their power-play drought when they were awarded a full two minutes of a 5-on-3 advantage. With just six seconds remaining in the two-man advantage, Mark Scheifele found Kyle Connor in full flight, and Connor did the rest, beating Akira Schmid over the shoulder for his team-leading 11th goal of the season. It was Connor's fifth power-play goal of the campaign, matching his total from all of last season.

Unfortunately, the Jets couldn't build on their momentum as their penalty-kill struggles continued. Morgan Barron was called for tripping, and Florida needed just eight seconds to make them pay. Seth Jones beat Nico Daws at 15:24 to restore the Panthers' two-goal lead. It was Florida's fifth power-play goal against Winnipeg in their two meetings this season.

"There's a ton of emphasis on it. It's not like we get beat a few times and just go out and try to do the same thing. We've had meetings, and we've talked about it as players," Barron said when asked about the Jets' penalty-kill struggles.

"We've talked about it with the coaches, too. It seems like we're getting beat in different ways, and you can chalk some of that up to bad luck. But at the end of the day, we're not getting the results."

Barron brought the Jets within one at 8:46 of the third period, powering past Dmitry Kulikov along the boards before cutting to the net. He shifted from his backhand to his forehand and tucked the puck past Akira Schmid for his first goal of the season.

"I mean, it was great to kind of get us back in the game and bring it back to within one, but so that kind of dissipates pretty quickly. Not much feels too good right now," said Barron.

"We're trying to get out of this slump, and obviously these points are really important, count the same right now as they will in April. This isn't the direction we want our season to go."

Lundell added his second of the night at 13:33, benefiting from a fortunate bounce. Lars Eller sent a shot toward the Winnipeg net from the half wall, but the puck struck Dylan Samberg and landed right on Lundell's stick. With Nico Daws out of position, Lundell had an easy tap-in into the open net to make it 4-2 Florida.

The Finnish centre finished off his hat trick with Daws on the bench in favour of an extra attacker to round out the scoring at 18:21.

The Jets will head to Raleigh to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes next on Sunday afternoon.