Jets score twice in 3rd period to rally past Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Winnipeg Jets rallied with two goals in the third period and handed the Florida Panthers their third straight loss, 2-1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday.

Cole Perfetti and Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg (22-25-7), which had lost three of its past four, including a 2-1 shootout loss to Florida at home on Jan. 22. Eric Comrie made 27 saves for his third straight win.

“I thought we played a hell of a hockey game,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “I just liked the way we competed. We played, like I said the other day, nose-to-nose with those guys. That’s what you have to do, because if you back off, they’re going to run you over. I thought we did a good job of winning our share of puck battles, limiting what we gave up.”

Eetu Luostarinen scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for Florida (28-23-3).

“When you play in these tight, tight games, it’s going to be one shot,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice, whose team has lost three straight one-goal games.

“We played hard, we played our tails off. It’s tight right now with some of our challenges. We just have to keep the faith. Maybe that’s the test of where we’re at, the thing we do to win this year is to keep your belief and keep your fight, even when it’s going against you.”

Perfetti tied it 1-1 at 8:34. After Gabriel Vilardi was stopped by Bobrovsky on a drive to the net, the puck came free, and Perfetti tapped in the rebound near the left post.

“Obviously a good feeling,” Perfetti said. “A lot of chances there earlier in the game and [I] wasn't able to find it. So, just keep going to the net, trying to generate and try to get those chances, and go the net and get rewarded.

“… That's a good team. They play a hard style. It's not easy once they get up. It's not easy to score on them. They really clog things up and make it hard on you. So, to come from behind and get a win in this building, hopefully it’s huge for momentum. And I think the guys are feeling really good right now.”

Scheifele gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 15:46 on their fourth shot on goal of the period, taking advantage of a Panthers line change. Kyle Connor drove in on a 2-on-1 and sent a cross-ice pass to Scheifele, who shot over Bobrovsky’s glove from in close.

“I thought we had the majority of the chances all game long,” Comrie said. “I thought our team played really well all game long, really controlled a lot of the play. … We’re a pretty good team. When we put our heads together and play the right way we get a lot of chances. And today, we capitalized on two. That’s all we needed.”

Winnipeg rallied despite managing five shots in the third.

“We gave up five shots and I don’t expect Sergei to have that second one,” Maurice said. “We just got caught flat-footed on a line change and that’s my fault as much as anyone else.”

Florida took a 1-0 lead at 14:40 of the first period, five seconds after a Panthers power play ended.

With Logan Stanley racing out of the penalty box, Florida forward Evan Rodrigues took a floating wrist shot from just above the right circle that deflected in off of Luostarinen, who was screening Comrie at the side of the net.

“We were fine, and then a couple of sloppy plays or mistakes and they scored on us,” Luostarinen said. “Frustrating way to go down. If we’re not scoring more than one, we have to keep our net clean and we didn’t do that today. It’s tough. We battled.”

NOTES: The Panthers were without forwards Brad Marchand (lower body) and Anton Lundell (upper body). Lundell missed a second straight game; Marchand sat out after not playing following the second period of a 5-4 loss at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. … Scheifele, who has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in his past 16 games, all in January, scored the 53rd go-ahead, third-period goal of his career. He is two behind Blake Wheeler for the most in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history. It also was Scheifele’s fifth go-ahead goal in the final five minutes of regulation. Only Marc Savard (seven) has more in franchise history.