WINNIPEG – Anton Lundell scored the shootout winner as the Florida Panthers beat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 at Canada Life Centre. Josh Morrissey had a chance to win the game in overtime as his wrist shot beat Daniil Tarasov but not the iron. Cole Perfetti scored the only goal for the Jets who have points in seven of their last eight games (5-1-2). Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for Winnipeg who will close out this homestand on Saturday when they host the Detroit Red Wings.
PATIENCE, PATIENCE
After two periods where not much happened between the Jets and Panthers as the defending champs play a patient game where as Cole Perfetti described it “they want to lull you to sleep”. The two teams only combined for 23 shots and the Panthers took a 1-0 lead at 18:23 when Sam Bennett snapped a quick shot past Connor Hellebuyck. Outside of that goal, the Jets defended just as well as the Panthers.
“Pretty good job tonight. That's a very simple team. They don't take too many risks in their game. And, I thought we did a good job in our neutral zone, just kind of, only giving them that chip in and dump in play,” said Connor.
“Not a lot of plays to be made when we’re three above them, and everybody kind of beat their man back up the ice.”
THIRD PERIOD WAS MUCH BETTER
Florida continued to make things challenging for Winnipeg in terms of creating offence. But with both Matthew Tkachuk and Adam Lowry in the penalty box, the two teams were playing 4-on-4 and Jonathan Toews made a brilliant couple of plays. First, the veteran centre stole the puck Uvis Balinskis and then sent a seeing eye pass to Cole Perfetti who walked around Daniil Tarasov and scored on the backhand.
“I don't know. I couldn't see through who it was,” said Perfetti.
“And all of a sudden, the puck was on my stick. And it's a pretty good pass. So, yeah, I didn't really have to move for that one.”
