Florida squandered a late lead as Winnipeg's explosive third-period rally silenced the home crowd, snatching a 2-1 crucial victory away from the Panthers.
The Florida Panthers came up short on Saturday in the first of a three-game homestand.
Playing just their third game in Sunrise over the past several weeks, Florida took a lead into the third period only to lose 2-1 to the Winnipeg Jets at Amerant Bank Arena.
Despite skating without key forwards Brad Marchand (undisclosed) and Anton Lundell (upper-body), Florida played a strong game during the opening periods and took an earned lead into the late stages of the contest.
That lead was off a snipe by young forward Eetu Luostarien that came moments after Florida came off the power play.
As Jets’ defenseman Logan Stanley was sprinting out of the penalty box after serving a two-minute minor for cross-checking Florida forward Mackie Samoskevich, Evan Rodrigues corralled the puck at the blue line and fed an open Eetu in the right circle.
It didn’t take long for Luostarinen to wind up and fire a laser of a wrist shot past a screened Jets’ goalie Eric Comrie’s glove and into the net at the 14:40 mark of the first period.
Florida held onto that lead into the third period, and it wasn’t until nearly the halfway point of that final frame that Winnipeg finally was able to light the lamp.
After Gabe Vilardi made a couple nice moves to get to the Cats’ net, a streaking Cole Perfetti found a rebound and beat Sergei Borbovsky to knot the score at one at the 8:34 mark of the third period.
That’s how the score would remain until there was just 4:14 on the clock.
On what appeared to be a harmless zone entry, Winnipeg made a couple quick passes to completely bewilder the Panthers and take a 2-1 lead in the game’s final minutes.
It was a great passing sequence, with Gus Nyquist finding Kyle Connor entering the zone and then Connor going to the back of the crease where Mark Scheifele was waiting to slam home what proved to be the game-winning goal.
On to the Sabres.
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Photo caption: Jan 31, 2026; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Winnipeg Jets center Cole Perfetti (91) scores against Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)