The Winnipeg Jets’ scoring woes continued as did their losing streak Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers.
Florida scored three powerplay goals en route to a 5-1 win over the Jets at Canada Life Centre. Winnipeg has now lost six straight games (0-4-2) and has just 10 goals during the skid.
The Panthers scored three times in the span of just three minutes in the first period and never looked back.
“We really beat ourselves on this one,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We’ve only given up four PK (penalty kill) goals until tonight. We’ve done a pretty good job on our coverage and knowing who you have on certain scenarios. Tonight, I know we tipped one in our net but the other ones there – those are mistakes that we knew what we were supposed to do. You didn’t have to tell the player cause the player knew exactly who was supposed to be covering what.”
It was the first time since March of 2024 the Jets surrendered three power play goals in a single game, and they’ve now scored just five goals over their last four games as the losses start to pile up.
“A lot of shooting ourselves in the foot right now,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “Just mental errors. Reads, assignments, penalty killing. We give up three goals in three minutes.
“We’ve got to find a way to right the ship here and get this thing going in the right direction.”
The Jets have given up the first goal in four straight contests and in eight of their last 10 games overall.
The Jets power play came up empty again and they’re now 0-for-14 on the man advantage over their last five games.
It hasn’t exactly been the fresh start they were looking for following the Connor Hellebuyck trade and the Heritage Classic.
“It’s frustrating,” Lowry said. “We’re frustrated. We expect more out of ourselves. We expect more out of the team and we’re not delivering the results, so, we felt like going into the Heritage Classic that was going to be a great spot to get us right, didn’t get it done and you want to rebound and it seems like we’re picking ourselves off that mat.
“We got to find a way to get some things going in our favour, just some consistency in our game 5-on-5, shorthanded, on the power play and go from there.”
Carter Verhaeghe scored twice for the Panthers, while the Tkachuk brothers combined for seven points as Matthew picked up four assists, while Brady recorded a goal and two assists.
Lowry scored the lone goal for Winnipeg in the loss, his second of the season. It was his 13th career shorthanded goal to tie him with Thomas Steen for the second most in franchise history, behind only Doug Smail who had 25.
Jets goalie Clay Stevenson allowed five goals on 24 shots, the most he’s allowed in his four starts with Winnipeg.
Florida took control of this one early with three goals in the opening 20 minutes.
After a Cole Koepke holding penalty at about the six-minute mark of the game, the Panthers cashed in with the man advantage.
During a scramble behind the net, Brady Tkachuk was able to chip a loose puck to Verhaeghe in front, who snuck it past Stevenson to open the scoring.
Just over a minute later, defenceman Nikko Mikkola skated in from the point and threw a puck at the Jets net, which hit the stick of Jets defenceman Mario Ferraro and flew over the shoulder of Stevenson to give Florida the 2-0 lead.
The Jets then took a too many men penalty just past the halfway point of the period and Florida once again capitalized as Verhaeghe rifled a shot past Stevenson just 16 seconds into the man advantage, giving the Panthers three goals on their first five shots.
Both teams were able to convert on a Florida powerplay past the midway point of the second period. Panthers goalie Akira Schmid was stripped of the puck behind his net by Lowry, whose wraparound attempt just crossed the line to get the Jets on the board.
But on the same man advantage, the Panthers responded as the Tkachuk brothers and Sam Reinhart converted a tic-tac-toe passing play with Reinhart beating Stevenson to put Florida back up by three.
Brady Tkachuk would score the lone goal in the third period, finishing a rush by deflecting in a pass from his brother.
Tyrel Bauer and Brad Lambert both returned to the lineup for the Jets while Nino Niederreiter and Haydn Fleury were scratched.
The Jets now hit the road where they’ll visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night, with puck drop just after 6 p.m., before a rematch with Florida on Friday night.
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