Jets score two third-period goals to stun Panthers
For the fist four months of this NHL season, the Winnipeg Jets were the funhouse-mirror Florida Panthers. If the Jets were trailing after two, they were losing (1-18-2 on the year in such situations entering Saturday’s game).
But in a sign of just how sideways things have gotten in this slog of a Panthers season, Winnipeg flipped the script Saturday.
The Jets scored two goals on only five third-period shots to stun a staggering Panthers bunch 2-1 at home. Jets center Mark Scheifele gave the Jets their only lead of the game when he took a perfect pass from Kyle Connor and beat Sergei Bobrovsky glove side with just 4:14 left in regulation. That and a late Aaron Ekblad slashing penalty basically ensured Panthers’ first regulation loss in 19 games that they led after two this year.
“We got caught flat-footed on a line change that is as much my fault as anybody else’s,” Paul Maurice said late Saturday after his team third loss in as many games. “When you play in these tight games, it’s going to be one shot.”
And until the Panthers (28-23-3) get healthy (assuming they do at all this season), expect a lot more tight games coming down to one shot. An already depleted lineup was without Brad Marchand (undisclosed) and Anton Lundell (upper body) on Saturday, forcing Maurice to cobble together a fourth line of Sandis Vilmanis, Jesper Boqvist and Luke Kunin -- who have managed a combined 14 points in 100 combined games this season.
“We had our looks today,” said Panthers top-line center Evan Rodrigues, who set up Florida’s only goal Saturday. “It’s just capitalizing. We rolled them over pretty good, and I think usually what the key to our success is, when we’re able to just roll over lines and wear teams down. We’re having a little bit more difficulty doing that now. But my initial thought after the game is that they just scored more than we did. I don’t necessarily think there’s something to fix, or something that we did bad. They just capitalized on their chances and we didn’t.”
That wasn’t the case early on for a Panthers team that looked nothing like the team that had lost their previous two games. Eetu Luostarinen gave them a 1-0 first intermission lead by deflecting a blistering shot attempt by Rodrigues just seconds after the end of a Florida power play. Logan Stanley, who had just spent two minutes in the box for cross-checking Mackie Samoskevich in the teeth, was a stride or two away from being back in defensive position when Rodrigues uncorked his wrist shot. The goal was Luostarinen’s sixth of the season.
Winnipeg’s best first-period scoring chance was when forward Cole Perfetti hit the pipe on the man advantage late. Beyond that, the first period was all Florida, which had four times as many high-danger chances (4-1) through 20 minutes.
The action began to turn in a slow second period that featured zero goals on 14 combined shots. Winnipeg actually had the best chance of the period, when Connor was alone in front of Bobrovsky and elevated a backhand from point-blank range. But Bobrovsky stoned him with a sprawling glove save, one of his best in recent weeks.
That one-goal lead wasn’t going to last forever, however, and Cole Perfetti finally put the Jets on the board with a putback past Bobrovsky 8:34 into the third. The play started behind Winnipeg’s goal line, but the Panthers defensemen Jeff Petry lost a 50-50 puck to Perfetti in neutral ice and the Cats were on their heels the rest of the exchange.
Seven minutes later, the Jets (22-25-7) were ahead for good, stunning the Panthers and upping the stakes of what was already a crucial final pre-Olympics week for Florida. The Panthers remain eight points out of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, but play three teams ahead of them — the Sabers, Bruins and Lightning — in the next five days.
“It’s frustrating, but we have to look ahead and make a real push here before the break,” Luostarinen said.
This story was originally published January 31, 2026 at 8:07 PM.
