Who knows what Friday’s trade deadline will bring, or how many players played their final game as a Winnipeg Jet this week.
And though their playoff hopes are borderline infinitesimal, the Jets looked pretty solid Thursday night, knocking off the slumping Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 to extend their post-Olympic point streak to five games.
With Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn scratched ahead of the trade deadline, Ville Heinola and Isaak Phillips entered the lineup and the Jets held their own in the first 20 minutes, outshooting the Lightning 8-5 but neither team could find the back of the net.
Winnipeg nearly opened the scoring just over six minutes into the second when, off a turnover in the attacking zone, Walker Duehr slid the puck over to a hard-charging Cole Koepke but he was denied in-close by a sprawling Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Jets earned their second power play of the game with 7:03 to go in the second when Brandon Hagel was called for tripping. Mark Scheifele the best look, getting free in front and taking a pass from Gabriel Vilardi but his shot went off the shaft of Vasilevskiy’s stick and wide.
Moments after the Lightning finished the kill, Hagel had a great chance in close but Connor Hellebuyck turned him aside.
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For the ensuing faceoff, the Jets put their fourth line on the ice and they flipped the ice to open the scoring.
Tampa Bay won the draw but Tanner Pearson did a good job to knock the puck into the neutral zone, allowing Koepke to skate onto it to create a 2-on-1 with Morgan Barron.
Koepke’s shot was stopped by Vasilevskiy but it created a massive rebound that went right to Barron and he buried it for his ninth of the season at the 15:31 mark.
Just before the end of the period, Winnipeg’s top line came through to double the lead.
A turnover at the Tampa Bay blueline led to Kyle Connor skating the puck up the ice 1-on-3. As Lightning defenders converged around him, he dropped it back to Alex Iafallo, who skated into the slot before sliding it over to Scheifele for a one-timer that beat Vasilevskiy for his 29th of the season with just 18 seconds to go in the period.
The Jets outshot the Lightning 14-7 in the middle frame.
Tampa Bay got on the board just 1:52 into the third period. With Elias Salomonsson in the penalty box, the Lightning won the faceoff in the attacking zone back to Darren Raddysh. He walked the blueline before firing a shot that went wide of the net but bounced off the endboards and slid back in front of the net where Brayden Point was waiting to deposit it past Hellebuyck.
Less than four minutes later, the Jets restored their two-goal lead as one of their veteran forwards took a giant monkey off his back.
Pearson forced a turnover in the Tampa Bay end, knocking the puck near the corner where Jonathan Toews collected it. He spotted Gustav Nyquist in the slot and fed him the puck before Nyquist flipped a wrist shot past Vasilevskiy for his first goal as a Jet in his 40th game of the season.
The Jets thought they had another goal when Connor and Scheifele got free on a 2-on-1, leading to a Connor snipe at the 11:17 mark but the Lightning successfully challenged the goal as Scheifele had gone offside on the zone entry.
It stayed 3-1 for a while, forcing the Lightning to pull Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker with just over three minutes remaining. but Winnipeg iced the game when Connor scored into the empty net with 2:01 to go.
Hellebuyck made 26 saves to earn the win.
Jets fans will now eagerly await Friday’s 2 p.m. trade deadline before Winnipeg sees the ice again Saturday against Vancouver.
