Lightning top Jets in shootout

TAMPA --Steven Stamkos scored the game-winner in the fifth round of the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-5 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Amalie Arena on Thursday.
Stamkos, who scored his 299th NHL goal in the first period, beat Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec with a wrist shot high on the stick side.

The Tampa Bay captain was in no mood to celebrate after the Lightning blew a three-goal lead in the third period and had to rally for the shootout win.
"I don't think we can walk out of here and be proud of our performance," Stamkos said. "We can be OK with the fact that we got the two points. Sometimes you win games and you can't, as a team, collectively look in the mirror and be happy with that effort. It's just unacceptable."
The Lightning had a meeting after the game.
"We've got to be better," said Tampa Bay forward Ryan Callahan, who scored in the first round of the shootout. "We're not good enough defensively. Three-goal lead at home in the third period, you can't give that up. It's disturbing, and we've got to correct it."
Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Jonathan Marchessault and Victor Hedman scored for Tampa Bay (31-22-4), which finished its four-game homestand 2-2-0 after losing the middle two.

Andrew Ladd scored twice, and Mathieu Perreault, Mark Scheifele and Tyler Myers each had a goal for Winnipeg (25-28-4), which used a four-goal third period to rally for a point.
Perreault gave the Jets a 5-4 lead with 5:20 left in the third when he scored a power-play goal off a rebound during a scrum in front of the net.
Kucherov tied it 24 seconds later with a wrist shot that beat Pavelec to the far post.
"I was [angry]," Kucherov said. "We gave up so many goals in the third. I got the puck and was able get through, and luckily it went in the net."
Ladd scored shorthanded at 7:33 of the third to get Winnipeg within a goal at 4-3. Joel Armia got possession of the puck behind the Lightning net and found Ladd in the slot for a wrist shot from close range.
Ladd scored his second of the game and 15th of the season at 12:44 to tie it 4-4. He tripped while trying to get off a shot, but the loose puck hit off Lightning forward Ondrej Palat's skate and got past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
"We battled and competed for 60 minutes and unfortunately came up on the wrong side of it," said Ladd, who scored Winnipeg's shootout goal. "This team always responds well when we're challenged. I'm happy with the effort we had tonight."

Killorn gave the Lightning a 4-1 lead at 2:00 of the third with a backhand that beat Pavelec through the five-hole after Ryan Callahan found him open in the slot.
Scheifele scored his 13th goal with a one-timer from the left circle on a power play to make it 4-2.

"We got behind, but we stuck with it," Jets forward Blake Wheeler said. "I don't really care much about the result, I care more about the substance of what was out there. And I think that was a real strong effort from our team."
Tampa Bay scored three goals in a 4:01 span of the first period to take a 3-0 lead. Hedman beat Pavelec with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle at 15:38, Marchessault scored with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Killorn from behind the net at 17:52, and Stamkos picked up a loose puck in the slot and scored at 19:39.
Myers got Winnipeg on the board at 13:45 of the second period to make it 3-1.
"I liked all 60 minutes. [They] played like men, [they] played hard, they played for their teammates," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "They played with discipline at a time where you worry that [the game] might get off the rails. We outplayed them and out-chanced them, and I pushed them hard yesterday and they responded."
Vasilevskiy made 36 saves through overtime, then made stops on four of five Jets shooters in the tiebreaker. Pavelec had 21 saves but allowed two goals in the shootout.
"It wasn't our team game that let us down; it was our special teams," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We gave up a [shorthanded] goal and two power-play goals, and that changed the game. It was just a weird game. There was so much going on. It was back and forth."
Jets forward Bryan Little was injured on a hit by Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman late in the second period and did not return.
Maurice took issue with the hit and was given a bench minor at the end of the second period. He continued to argue with the officials before the start of the third period and was ejected.
"I was upset because you work with these guys every day and you care about them," Maurice said. "You care about their wives and their families, and Bryan is getting his neck X-rayed, and I seem to be more concerned about the result of that hit than anyone else."