WINNIPEG -- With the wolves starting to sniff around on the front porch, the Panthers found a way to shut the door — at least for the time being.

It’s not a comfortable feeling, but despite having the rest of the Southeast Division breathing down their necks in recent days, the Panthers turned in a solid outing and beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 in a shootout in front of 15,004 at MTS Centre on Saturday night.

Winger Mikael Samuelsson scored the winner in the seventh round of the shootout.

The victory moved Florida (22-15-10) to 54 points in the division, two up on the idle Washington Capitals and five up on the third-place Jets.

That’s the big picture.

On a smaller scale, the victory provided a shot in the Panthers’ arm on a number of fronts. First off, it snapped a lengthy eight-game losing streak (0-4-4) on the road that the club was dealing with. Second, it breathed a little life into a team that had only won three times in its past 13 outings coming into Winnipeg, and, finally, it grades out well in the resiliency department.

After some travel headaches in getting out of Chicago on Friday night, the Panthers didn’t arrive in Winnipeg until 3 a.m. Saturday — not a great situation to be in when faced with an early start time against the Jets (6 p.m. Central time).

Right winger Kris Versteeg and center Mike Santorelli scored first-period goals to give the Panthers the early advantage, a cushion that was welcome considering the club was playing its second game in as many nights.

Goaltender Scott Clemmensen, making his first start in three games, was excellent, turning aside shot after shot as Winnipeg carried the play through most of the game. Clemmensen was particularly sharp in the opening period, when the Jets enjoyed a 5-on-3 power play for 53 seconds.

While Clemmensen was the story in the Florida net, Versteeg picked a perfect time to come out of his funk.

His second goal — which gave the Panthers a 3-2 lead 57 seconds after Winnipeg’s Nik Antropov tied the game at 2-2 at the 5:54 mark of the third period — was his team-leading 19th of the season. Unfortunately for Florida, they couldn’t hold that lead, either, as Jets forward Alex Burmistrov tied the game when he squeaked a shot past Clemmensen with 6:15 left.

Clemmensen was by far the busier of the two netminders. He faced 44 shots for the game; his counterpart, goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, made 20 saves in the Winnipeg net.

Versteeg, who a hat trick the last time the clubs met in Manitoba (Nov. 10), had a three-point game. Santorelli’s goal was his sixth of the season and came a day after coach Kevin Dineen made him a healthy scratch in Chicago.

Antropov’s two goals were his seventh and eighth of the season.

Dineen made a number of lineup changes for the game. Santorelli and right winger Matt Bradley, both scratched for the game in Chicago, came back in, replacing center John Madden and winger Scottie Upshall.

Upshall received treatment prior to the game for a hip injury he has been dealing with. After missing 30 games with the injury, he returned to the Florida lineup Friday night, and the coaches, wanting to err on the side of caution, decided to give him the night off in Winnipeg.

The Panthers are back in action Tuesday night, when they welcome Philadelphia to the BankAtlantic Center.