TAMPA – Coming off a loss in Carolina a couple of days ago and a good old-fashion bag skate Wednesday, the Winnipeg Jets were hoping for a better effort in Tampa Thursday night against a Lightning team that is in a battle for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference . The Jets came out flying but after a few timely errors saw themselves down 3-0 after one only to battle back in a wild game that saw them see their coach Paul Maurice ejected and eventually lose in a shootout 6-5.
The Jets outshot the Lightning 41-26 and were great on special teams scoring two power play goals and were perfect on the penalty kill going 5-for-5 against the high powered Lightning power play.
With the score 3-1 late in the second period Anton Stralman hit Nik Ehlers with a questionable low hit then seconds later caught Bryan Little with fore arm to the head and that’s when the fireworks started. After no penalty was called on the dirty hits Coach Maurice explained what he thought of the non call and was given a bench minor, as he entered the bench area at the start of the third he was greeted by the referee standing by the bench and he gave him some more insight before getting tossed. Little would not return and was taken to hospital for x-rays on his neck.
“I was upset because you work with these guys every day and you care about them,” Maurice said. “You care about their wives and their families, and Bryan is getting his neck X-rayed, and I seem to be more concerned about the result of that hit than anyone else.”
The Jets saw themselves down 4-1 before battling all the way back and taking the lead 5-4 before eventually losing in the shootout. It was maybe a turning point on a dismal season so far as they earned a point in a very emotional game.
“I liked all 60 minutes. [They] played like men, [they] played hard, they played for their teammates,” Maurice said. “They played with discipline at a time where you worry that [the game] might get off the rails. We outplayed them and out-chanced them, and I pushed them hard yesterday and they responded.”
The Jets were led by their captain Andrew Ladd who scored a pair his 14th a shorthanded marker and his 15th goals of the year. He also scored a beauty in the shootout and had a fight.
“We battled and competed for 60 minutes and unfortunately came up on the wrong side of it,” said Ladd, who scored Winnipeg’s shootout goal. “This team always responds well when we’re challenged. I’m happy with the effort we had tonight.”
Other Jets goal scorers were Tyler Myers, Mark Scheifele and Mathieu Perrault
Steven Stamkos scored a beauty in the shootout for Tampa which gave them the win.
“I don’t think we can walk out of here and be proud of our performance,” Stamkos said. “We can be OK with the fact that we got the two points. Sometimes you win games and you can’t, as a team, collectively look in the mirror and be happy with that effort. It’s just unacceptable.”
Ondrej Pavelec started his third straight game since returning from a leg injury for Winnipeg.
“We’ve got to be better,” said Tampa Bay forward Ryan Callahan, who scored in the first round of the shootout. “We’re not good enough defensively. Three-goal lead at home in the third period, you can’t give that up. It’s disturbing, and we’ve got to correct it.”
The Jets will head to Florida for a Saturday night game against the Panthers.
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