Scheifele's Hat Trick Helps Jets Halt Losing Streak, Beat Panthers 6-3

Two of the league's very top teams met in Manitoba on Tuesday, on the night that True North Sports + Entertainment chose to honour the 20-year anniversary of the city's downtown hockey and entertainment venue.

With Dancing Gabe's Top-10 Canada Life Centre Events counting down at stoppages in play throughout the evening, the celebratory sellout crowd of 15,225 had six reasons to cheer on Tuesday.

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With Winnipeg coming off its first losing streak of the season (two games) the Jets faced off against the very familiar Florida Panthers - a team that had whipped Winnipeg 5-0 just three nights prior.

Tuesday's game was a different story.

Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick, Morgan Barron collected his first two goals of the season and Connor Hellebuyck made 20 stops, as the Jets broke their scoring slump, beating Paul Maurice and the Panthers 6-3.

Connor opened the scoring with 5:47 to go in the first period, scoring off of a difficult Panthers turnover. Scheifele forced the defensive error, before Connor put the finishing touches on the goal with a beautiful backhand roof-job.

Just three minutes, Scheifele caught the Panthers on a bad line change after a lengthy Jets cycle. The goal was Scheifele's 10th of the season, pulling him to within two goals of Connor for the team lead.

Winnipeg was handed a full two minutes of five-on-three power play action in the middle stanza, but neither unit was able to put anything past Sergei Bobrovsky.

But later in the frame, former Jets defenceman Dmitry Kulikov found himself in the box for tripping, and Winnipeg did not let that opportunity go to waste.

Nikolaj Ehlers found Scheifele cross-ice, who hammered home the one-timer, extending Winnipeg's lead to three.

Moments after Adam Lowry missed what looked like an easy tap-in on a two-on-one rush up ice, Nate Schmidt and the Panthers capitalized on a deflection play that ended up bouncing into the Jets' net off Lowry's ankle.

Winnipeg had a 12-7 shot advantage in the second, leading 17-15 through 40 minutes of play, while remaining ahead 3-1 on the scoreboard.

The visitors got one back on third period power play, as the Panthers' top scorer Sam Reinhart finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Cole Perfetti in the box for hooking.

The goal came after a strong Florida push, resulting in back-to-back posts hit behind Hellebuyck.

But the Jets pushed back, with Scheifele getting his third of the games and 12th of the season. With Winnipeg's No. 1 power play eating up the entire two minutes, Scheifele blasted home his hat trick shortly after the hooking minor expired.

"You're always more tired defending than when you have the puck," Scheifele said. "When you have the chance of scoring you can find a little extra energy. We just wanted to get a plus on it, not a power-play goal."

With Josh Morrissey in the box and Bobrovsky on the bench for the extra attacker, Matthew Tkachuk fired home his fifth of the season through a screened Hellebuyck, bringing Florida to within one goal with 3:22 remaining in the third.

The Jets' penalty kill was once again put to the test just moments later, as Vlad Namestnikov took an offensive zone tripping minor with 2:15 to go.

But it was Barron, who perfectly banked a long-range empty-net marker into the yawning cage for his first of the season.

"He went to Cornell, so I think you have to be pretty smart," Scheifele joked of Barron's perfectly-executed bank play.

With Bobrovsky back on the bench, Barron picked up his second empty-netter, also from long range, putting things completely out of reach.

“Yeah, more than I probably cared to admit," Barron said when asked if he was thinking much about sitting on zero goals. "You try to just stick to your process and not focus on the results, but at the end of the day, you want to be able to contribute and eventually score a few. I was probably gripping the stick a little bit tighter than I wanted to, but it let’s things relax a little bit.”

Hellebuyck finished the night with 20 saves on the 23 pucks he faced, while Bobrovsky turned aside 21 of the 24 shots directed his way.

Next up for the Jets is the start of a season-high six-game road trip with stops all over the map. First up is Pittsburgh in Friday, followed closely by a stop in Nashville on Saturday. Both games feature 6:00 PM central start times.