Scheifele's four-point night helps Jets beat Lightning

WINNIPEG - It was about as thrilling of an end to a home stand as the Winnipeg Jets could give their fans inside Canada Life Centre, as the home side down the two-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lighting with a wild 7-4 victory.
Five Jets recorded multi-point games on Tuesday night, with Mark Scheifele leading the way with a goal and three assists.
Blake Wheeler had two assists - his first one giving him 500 career helpers with the franchise - while Paul Stastny, Josh Morrissey, and Kyle Connor also had two points on the night.
"We've found some consistency being in the right spots," said Scheifele. "Our D were moving really well tonight. That opens up seams, that opens up other guys and gets them on the run so I liked that part of it. I think we have to see more of that."
Winnipeg finishes the four-game home stand with a 2-1-1 record, with the other regulation win coming over the Montreal Canadiens a week ago.
In fact, both of those wins came in similar fashions.
The Jets (25-22-10) built a lead in the first, the opposition came back, then Winnipeg pulled away in the third.

"This game, the one against Montreal we've played a lot better, made a lot more plays and been better with the puck, skating better," said Scheifele. "When you have our team making plays and making passes and getting O-zone time, you know, we're a pretty dangerous team."
After Scheifele's one-timer on the power play was stopped earlier in the period, he wouldn't be denied at the 4:19 mark. He tipped a Logan Stanley point shot off the post, then got to the loose puck and his backhand beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to put the Jets up 1-0. Nate Schmidt picked up the secondary assist on Scheifele's 21st of the season.
Just 1:52 later, Adam Lowry banged home a rebound to put the Jets ahead by 2-0. The play was the result of Nikolaj Ehlers circling the offensive zone and finding Brenden Dillon at across the ice at the left point. Dillon's shot was stopped, but Lowry was there to put it home for his eighth of the season, and fifth in the last nine games.
Tampa Bay cut that lead in half with 8:10 left in the first when Ryan McDonagh finished of a two-on-one with Mathieu Joseph, beating Connor Hellebuyck on the stick side just inside the post.

Stastny responded for Winnipeg though, as his wrist shot from the slot squeaked under the arm of Vasilevskiy and trickled over the line to make it 3-1 for the home side. Stastny's 16th of the season came after the Jets won a puck battle on the boards on the right side, then Neal Pionk slipped a pass to Stastny in the middle of the ice.
Alex Killorn pulled the visitors back within one as the Lightning capitalized off another Jets turnover just outside the blue line. Corey Perry fed Killorn a pass in the middle of the ice from the left wing, and Killorn went high on the blocker side for his 17th of the campaign.
Then Victor Hedman tied the game with 2:30 left in the first, as he snapped home his 14th of the season - a wrister from the high slot off the post and in - to cap off a wild first period.

"Take out the three goals we gave up, I thought we did a lot of really good things in the first period," said Jets interim head coach Dave Lowry. "We created the way that we wanted to."
The next goal wouldn't come until the third, when the Jets capitalized on a power play chance at the 7:25 mark. Pierre-Luc Dubois hopped on a rebound after a Kyle Connor shot and tucked it past Vasilevskiy to put the Jets ahead 4-3.
The Jets were all over loose pucks in front of Vasilevskiy on this night. Tampa's netminder came into the game with the most wins in the NHL (30), so the Jets knew they had to make things difficult on him.
"The big thing was, we went into the (hard) areas," said Lowry. "We made it hard for him to find pucks. We had a lot of shots from up top, but we had traffic and we had layers going to the net."

Then, while shorthanded 1:51 later, Connor took advantage of Nikita Kucherov falling in the neutral zone, and went in alone on Vasilevskiy. He made a beautiful move, faking forehand before sliding a backhand past the outstretched pad of the Lightning goaltender. Connor's 34th of the season put the Jets up 5-3.
"I was just trying to get under the drop there, take away his options, make him make a play, force him to make a pass," said Connor. "They didn't connect on it and I was just there, ready for the opportunity."
Josh Morrissey potted an empty netter to tie his career-high of seven goals, then Stastny added his second of the night shortly after Ross Colton made it 6-4.

Now the Jets head out on the road for three games in four nights, beginning Thursday in New Jersey.
The key will be bringing the momentum from this win on the road with them.
"We talked about how we'd have to play the rest of the way home to give ourselves a chance," said Lowry. "We were going to have to play direct, we were going to have to play in straight lines. And we did that. We stayed with it. We played our game for 60 minutes tonight."