Lowry nets OT winner as Winnipeg Jets down Lightning 3-2 – Winnipeg

In search of an overtime hero, the Winnipeg Jets turned to their captain as Adam Lowry scored early in the extra frame to lift his team to a 3-2 win against the Lightning in Tampa Wednesday night.

Lowry’s goal just 99 seconds into overtime gave the Jets a fourth straight victory to start the road trip. It was also their seventh win in their last eight games to move into sole possession of second place in the Central Division pending the outcome of a late game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks.

Josh Morrissey had a goal and an assist, while Mark Scheifele notched the other marker for Winnipeg.

The Jets jumped out to an early two goal lead in the opening frame. But the Lightning dialed it up a notch in the middle stanza as they completely took the game over temporarily. But the Jets regained their composure later in the period and it was tied at two apiece through 40 minutes. They played a scoreless third before the Jets won it in overtime.

“It’s always a tough game, especially in this building,” said Morrissey. “I thought we did a good job, obviously getting the lead. They pushed back and the best part was probably us settling in after it went 2-2, and just kinda playing a pretty solid game. There was some chances either way, but we didn’t break and it’s a huge two points.”

It was a chance-filled game with the momentum tilting back-and-forth as the shots finished 33-32 in the Lightning’s favour.

“That had a little bit of everything,” said Jets interim head coach Scott Arniel. “Both teams kinda had momentum for stretches, whether it was six or seven minutes we would dominate, and then all of a sudden they took over for awhile. I really liked our third period. I really thought we did a great job in the third of just trying to stay above them, and create some offence from that. And that was a heck of a game to watch.”

It was their third straight victory against the Lightning after sweeping the season series last year.

Connor Hellebuyck made a number of game changing stops among his 31 saves on the night. But trading chances against a potent offence like Tampa is probably not a good recipe for success after playing a sound structural game last time out against the Arizona Coyotes.

“Tonight we got away from it, kinda opened up the middle of the ice,” said Lowry. “Allowed some of their star players to get really good looks.

“Helly (Hellebuyck) was there. He stood tall and he made some big saves for us.”

The Lightning had a couple of early chances to get on the board but Hellebuyck said no. First, he made a sliding post-to-post save with his skate off a Nikita Kucherov one-timer, before turning aside a Brandon Hagel breakaway about 30 seconds later.

Those saves proved even bigger when Winnipeg opened the scoring shortly thereafter. A Dylan DeMelo point shot was stopped by Jonas Johansson but a big rebound bounced right to Morrissey, who fired it through the Tampa netminder at the 5:29 mark.

The Jets doubled their lead on the power play just over 13 minutes in. Scheifele tipped a Morrissey point shot past Johansson to make it 2-0 for the visitors.

But Tampa got back in it thanks to their own power play, which came into the game as the fourth-best PP unit in the NHL.

Mason Appleton was hurt blocking a shot at the start of the power play and stayed on the ice but was clearly hobbled as the Lightning passed the puck around the Winnipeg end, resulting in a cross-ice feed that Steven Stamkos one-timed past Hellebuyck with 1:54 to go in the first.

The Jets would carry the 2-1 lead into the second despite being outshot 16-10 in the opening frame.

The home side would draw even just over six minutes into the second period. The Lightning nearly scored on a mad scramble in front of the net with the puck bouncing off the post, but the Jets could not clear the puck.

Moments later, Brayden Point found himself alone in close and he roofed the puck past Hellebuyck to level the score.

It would stay tied into the second intermission as Winnipeg failed on the lone power play of the period, though each side had some decent chances to take the lead as the Jets outshot Tampa 12-10 in the middle frame.

The third period flew by, opening with 8:35 of uninterrupted play. There were only five stoppages in the entire third period, but zero goals as each side locked things down defensively.

After the two sides traded possessions early in OT, Lowry and Vladislav Namestnikov led a rush up the ice for Winnipeg. On his 31st birthday, Namestnikov was pushed to the outside and carried it behind the goal before he was bumped into the boards.

It was close to becoming an odd-man rush the other way but Namestnikov got in the way just enough before Pionk grabbed the puck and slid a pass to a wide-open Lowry at the side of the goal.

The captain made no mistake, beating Johansson for his third of the season to give the Jets two points and improve their November record to 7-2.

Winnipeg continues a three-game road trip against the Florida Panthers Friday night. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 5 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 7 p.m.

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