Jets fail to hold lead, fall to Lightning, 7-4

In Tampa, the Winnipeg Jets led the Lightning on Saturday and let it slip away when the Bolts scored five straight in a 7-4 win.

Brian Elliott made 14 saves in the win.

Nikita Kucherov hit for a double in the win.

“Hopefully we can just build off that third [period],” Tampa’s Steve Stamkos said. “That was kind of the hockey we’re accustomed to playing. Playing with confidence and poise and just making the right reads and defending hard.”

Stamkos had a goal in the Tampa win.

Tampa improved to 46-21-8.

Kyle Connor had a goal for the Jets.

“I don’t know whether it’s tired, lack of motivation from some guys in the room. We’re definitely a frustrated group here,” Connor said. “Yeah there is a slight chance, but it’s a chance to make the playoffs. … Two critical games and we put up that kind of effort.”

With the Jets leading 4-2, Nicholas Paul scored for Tampa to start the rally and make it a 4-3 count.

“I think we needed something to pull us in the fight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “The first shift kind of said it all — we were a little passive and we weren’t finishing. I give Winnipeg a ton of credit, they went back to back and they played hard.”

Josh Morrissey,Paul Stastny, and Blake Wheeler also scored for Winnipeg.

“I thought we were in control of the hockey game,” Jets coach Dave Lowry said. “We were up 4-2 and then they had a couple of shifts back to back where they were able to score that third goal and then equalize the game before the period was over. We did a lot of good things for two periods.”

Kucherov and Stamkos combined to make it 6-4 for the Lightning.

“We had a good third period,” Kucherov said. “Just the way we played as a team. If you look at our first shift in the third it was like a different team playing. Hopefully we can build off it.”

Mikhail Sergachev completed the rally for the 7-4 final.

Alex Killorn and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for Tampa.