Jets Win Third Straight on Scheifele Buzzer Beater

After a tumultuous stretch of hockey, the Winnipeg Jets have quickly turned things around and now find themselves on a three-game winning streak.

All of which was prompted by the miraculous four-goal comeback vs. Montreal on Tuesday - Winnipeg most recently took care of business against a powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning team at home on Sunday.

Coming off a 6-2 drubbing of Vancouver on Thursday, Winnipeg found goals from Cole Perfetti, Morgan Barron, Brayden Yager and Mark Scheifele and received solid goaltending from Stuart Skinner, who bounced back after a late period push from Tampa to earn the victory.

Things did get dicey late in the third period, but the Jets managed to score one more than their opponent when it mattered most: the final second.

“We’ve got a lot of great guys on this team, guys with a lot of heart and a lot of skill. You know, it’s fun," Scheifele said post-game.

"We definitely didn’t draw it up that way, but unbelievable effort by the guys. They don’t ask how. They just ask how many wins. We’ll put that one in the chamber and not look at it again.”

A slow opening frame featured the Jets falling behind in the shot department 7-5, but thanks to an early second period power play, Winnipeg was able to strike first.

Haydn Fleury got the puck to Mark Scheifele, who made a slick feed to Perfetti. He hammered home the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy, giving Winnipeg the 1-0 lead on the power play.

Later in the frame, after successfully killing off another minor penalty, it was Barron who doubled the Jets' lead. Neal Pionk got the puck from Viggo Bjorck, and worked his way around the Tampa Bay zone. He found Barron cross-ice, who one-timed the disc past a bewildered Vasilevskiy, blowing the roof off Canada Life Centre.

The momentum certainly shifted the Jets' way in the middle stanza, to which Winnipeg put up 12 shots in the frame, pulling ahead 17-14 in that regard, while scoring twice. 

Brayden Yager tapped home his first career NHL goal on a mid-period power play, but immediately gave one back to Tampa on a defensive zone giveaway just two minutes later.

“That was really cool," Yager said of his milestone.

"Mom, Dad and Grandpa were here, so it was pretty cool to do it in front of them. Just a great play by Viggo there that touched over to me and had a pretty wide-open net. Unbelievable feeling. Dream come true.”

The Bolts weren't done there either, as Pontus Holmberg scored not once but twice in a 26 second span, giving the Lightning three goals in a span of 4:05, tying the game in the process.

But with just a minute to play, the Jets were given a five-on-three power play thanks to a Yanni Gourde tripping minor, followed shortly after by an Erik Cernak delay of game minor. 

Resorting to their big guns, the Jets got the game-winner from Scheifele, to which Perfetti found his partner wide-open in the high slot. He hammered home his fourth of the season with just 0.3 seconds left on the clock, handing the Jets the buzzer beater. 

“I had no idea, to be honest," Scheifele laughed. "I had a feeling if it popped out and there was such a big seam and I was wide open. I wasn’t going to waste my time looking at the clock.”

Skinner turned aside 17 of the 20 pucks sent his way by Tampa, while Vasilevskiy made 21 stops on 25 shots. 

Next up for Winnipeg a big test against Connor Hellebuyck, as the New Jersey Devils make their lone trip to Manitoba on Tuesday night. It will be the final test of the three-game homestand for Winnipeg, which travels to Dallas and Chicago later in the week.