Jets defeat Panthers in six-round shootout

WINNIPEG-- Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault scored in the shootout, and Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves to give the Winnipeg Jets a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers at MTS Centre on Thursday.
Perreault went from his backhand to his forehand several times before beating goalie Roberto Luongo with a wrist shot in the sixth round for the deciding goal, ending the Jets' four-game losing streak.
"A bunch [of players] were trying to go high glove and it just wasn't there," Perreault said. "So as a lefty, a bunch of the other guys are righties … coming down as a lefty, sometimes low blocker is an option, and it was there for me, so I took it."

The Jets trailed 3-2 entering the third period, but Little scored at 2:36 to tie it.
"We had enough leads in this game to close it out, and you can't let those ones slip away," Panthers forward Reilly Smith said. "It's tough that it ended up going to a shootout because it's anyone's game at that point. But I think we controlled the pace of the game from the start of the game. It's just frustrating."
WATCH: All Jets vs. Panthers highlights
Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and an assist for the Jets (14-16-3), and Adam Lowry scored.
Aleksander Barkov, Smith and Vincent Trocheck scored on the power play in the second period for the Panthers (13-13-5). Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom took all three minor penalties.
"I'm just happy the guys fought back and got a win here," Enstrom said. "It's tough. You never want to sit in the box. You never want to see when you're in there you get scored upon."

Luongo allowed three goals on 32 shots. He is one win shy of tying Terry Sawchuk (447) for fifth in NHL history.
Jaromir Jagr got the second assist on Barkov's goal and is three points behind Mark Messier (1,887) for second place on the NHL all-time scoring list. Wayne Gretzky is first with 2,857.
"It was back and forth," Panthers forward Nick Bjugstad said. "We got a lot of shots and capitalized on the power plays, but just a few errors in the defensive zone, and that'll cost you against a good team in this arena."
Byfuglien made it 1-0 with 11 seconds left in the first period. Patrik Laine found Byfuglien with a cross-ice pass, and he put a wrist shot past Luongo.
Barkov scored to tie the game 1-1 at 4:51 of the second period. It was his fourth goal in his past six games.
Smith scored to make it 2-1 at 8:36 with his first goal in 11 games.
Lowry's second attempt on a rebound got past Luongo at 10:11 to make it 2-2, but Trocheck scored at 11:58 to make it 3-2, tapping in his second goal in three games after a 17-game drought.

Goal of the game

Perreault put a low shot past Luongo on his blocker side for the shootout winner.

Save of the game

Luongo made a left-pad save on Nikolaj Ehlers' wraparound attempt in the third period to keep the game tied 3-3.

Highlight of the game

Blake Wheeler, trailing the play, took a quick pass from Byfuglien and found Little cross-ice to tie the game in the third period.

Unsung performance of the game

Ehlers had six shots on goal and created several other scoring chances.
"You want it to go in," he said. "When you're getting a lot of pretty big chances … it's like you think to yourself, 'What's going on?'"

They said it

"We kind of came into this one anticipating it was going to be a little bit ugly. We didn't think we'd just come in after a couple days off and be right back on top of our game. It wasn't pretty by any means. But at the same time you're going to need wins like that in this league. It was a good sign there in the third period, to gut it out, get it into overtime and get the two (points)." -- Jets captain Blake Wheeler
"It was a tough one, we did a lot of good things. We outshot them dramatically in the first and second period, had great chances, just couldn't finish. The good thing is the power play came around, got three there, which is great. Four-on-4 [defensive]-zone coverage, we need to work on because we lost a couple of assignments on that. A lot of good stuff [to] build on tomorrow." -- Panthers coach Tom Rowe

Need to know

Panthers forward Jonathan Marchessault was injured in the pregame skate and did not play. … Bjugstad's assist on Barkov's goal was his first point in 12 games this season. … Perreault's assist on Byfuglien's goal was his 200th point in the NHL.

What's next

Panthers: At the Colorado Avalanche on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Jets: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; TSN3, ALT, NHL.TV)