5 Takeaways: Panthers' Win Streak Comes to an End in Winnipeg

The Florida Panthers saw their three-game winning streak come to an abrupt end on Sunday night, surrendering five unanswered goals in a tough 7-2 loss against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place.

"We've got to realize that we weren't good enough, especially in that third period," Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle said. "I think all night as a D-core we weren't where we have been in the past seven or eight games. I think we've just got to learn from it and play better in Toronto."
Mark Scheifele scored the game-winning goal, beating James Reimer on a one-timer from the slot just as Winnipeg's power play expired to put the Jets up 3-2 at 18:29 of the second period.
"We had the penalty killed and we just stepped out of the box," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "We talked about before the game how good their power play was and how they can execute. They got us."
After a 6-3 win in Calgary on Saturday, Boughner said the Panthers were looking a bit tired after arriving in Winnipeg late last night and that "when you get tired the first thing you lose is your mental capacity for the game."
"I think our brains were a little bit off there in the second half of the game and our legs weren't far behind that," he said.
The Panthers (26-24-6) are now 3-1-0 on their current five-game road trip, which wraps up on Tuesday in Toronto. Florida has won seven of its last nine games and sits six points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with four games in hand.
"If you look at the big picture, we've got one game left before we go home," Boughner said. "If we can find a way to get two points in Toronto and get four out of five [on the road], we'd take that any day before the trip started."
Here are five takeaways from Sunday's loss in Winnipeg…

1. THE SAVE OF SUNDAY

One of the best saves on Sunday night didn't come from a goaltender. Less than five minutes into the game, a deflection by Jets forward Nic Petan bounced off his teammate, Matt Hendricks, and sent the puck slowly crawling towards the goal line. With Panthers goaltender James Reimer unable to locate the wayward piece of rubber, defenseman Alexander Petrovic swooped in, reached around Reimer and whacked it out of harm's way to keep the game scoreless. The play was one of several nice moments Petrovic has had throughout Florida's current road trip. On Wednesday in Vancouver, the 25-year-old recorded his first goal since Nov. 15, 2016. In 45 games this season, however, Petrovic has proven to be far more of an intimidating physical presence than a point producer, leading Florida with 102 hits, while also posting 57 blocks, five fights and six points (1-5-6).

2. DENIS HITS DOUBLE DIGITS

Denis Malgin joined the double-digit goal club for the first time in his career on Sunday night, beating Connor Hellebuyck with a top-shelf snipe on the power play that put the Panthers up 1-0 at 8:57 of the first period. "I saw a shooting lane and just shot it," Malgin said. "And, yeah, the puck went in." Since moving up to the second line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Vincent Trocheck, the puck has been going in a lot for Malgin. The 21-year-old has found the back of the net five times over his last 10 games, which is tied with Evgenii Dadonov for the most on the team during that span. In the midst of his second season with the Panthers, Malgin, a fourth-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, has already set new career highs in goals (10), assists (7) and points (17) in 36 games.

3. BATTER UP

Evgenii Dadonov showed off his baseball skills on Sunday night, batting a puck out of midair with his backhand that deflected Aleksander Barkov and in to make it a 2-2 game at 7:34 of the second period. After initially being credited with the goal, Dadonov would eventually have to settle for an assist, as the score was changed to Barkov, who has now reached the 20-goal mark in each of the past three seasons. Still, that spectacular display of hand-eye coordination is just the latest wow moment from Dadonov, who has four goals and two assists through the first four stops on Florida's road trip, including scoring the game-winning goal on a penalty shot on Monday in Edmonton. A speed demon on the top line, the 28-year-old winger ranks fourth on the Panthers in goals (15) and points (37) in 48 games this season.

4. MONEY WITH THE MAN ADVANTAGE

With a pair of power play goals from Denis Malgin and Aleksander Barkov, the Panthers have now scored with the man advantage in a season-long six straight games. Since Feb. 1, the Panthers are operating at the best rate in the NHL on the power play, going 12-for-32 (37.5 percent) over the last eight games. The biggest difference for the Panthers when they've had the extra attacker in recent weeks has been their ability to successfully reset after failed scoring chances. When a play doesn't work, the puck is sent right back up to the blue line and the play starts over. Rinse and repeat. With a 2-for-4 performance against the Jets, Florida's power play is up to 17th in the league (19.89 percent) - up nearly four percent from Feb. 1, when they ranked 27th (16 percent).

5. NEXT STOP: FINLAND

With Sunday night's win against the Panthers, the Jets improved to 23-5-2 at home this season - the most home wins in the NHL. Winnipeg had six different goal scorers, with Kyle Connor leading the way with his 20th and 21st goals of the season. The Jets took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission and improved to 27-0-1 when leading after 40 minutes this season. This was the second and final meeting between the Panthers and Jets this season, with Florida filling up the scoresheet during a 6-4 win on Dec. 7 at BB&T Center in their first matchup. The next time these two teams will meet is when they play a pair of games in Finland - home to Winnipeg's Patrik Laine and Florida's Aleksander Barkov - in November next season.