WINNIPEG – The last time the Jets won at home was Jan. 26 against the Arizona Coyotes right before the All Star break. Since then, they have suffered four home losses in a row and after Tuesday’s third period meltdown where they gave up two goals in the first five minutes of the period; the Jets dropped a 3-2 decision to the Florida Panthers for their fifth home loss in a row.
Roberto Luongo helped the Panthers edge the Jets – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Atlantic division leading Panthers were on their heels early but hung around long enough to scratch out their 36th victory of the season.
“We really had tough first two periods, and they dominated. We probably got lucky winning that hockey game,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “Winnipeg deserved better, and we didn’t deserve to win but found a way. [Luongo] was the main thing.
“We played for 20 minutes at the end of the game and we found a way to win, but I wasn’t happy with the way we competed and battled.”
Roberto Luongo was in goal for Florida and he stopped 30 of 32 Jets shots including a couple big stops off Mark Sheifele and Nik Ehlers. Luongo improves to 27-5-6 on the year.
“I think right now we’re about playing game to game,” Luongo said. “We want to be in first, but we don’t want to look at the standings too much. We just want to come work every day and keep it focused on the day.”
The Jets came out flying and outshot the Panthers 16-5 in the opening twenty minutes but found themselves down 1-0.
Winnipeg got on the board in the second as Dustin Byfuglien pinched in down low and banged home his 16th of the season. Andrew Copp gave the Jets the lead moments after a Panthers power play as he broke in alone after a nice dish from Alex Burmistrov and beat Luongo for his second of the season.
The Panthers shut down the speedy Jets’ transition game in the third and clogged the middle of the ice to take away a lot of chances and capitalized on some Winnipeg mistakes to score two third period goals and hold on for the win.
“We didn’t play the third period the way we played the first two,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “Our transition game changed. We slowed our transition through the neutral zone, and that’s why we didn’t look the way in the third the way we looked in the first two.
“[Florida’s] game changes at 3-2. They get a little tighter. They’re not pressing through the neutral zone, kind of defend a little differently.”
Florida got a pair of goals from Reilly Smith his 20th and 21st, Jaromir Jagr netted his 21st of the season.
“It was a pretty ugly first 40 minutes, that’s for sure,” Smith said. “It seemed like that power play kind of turned things around.”
Ondrej Pavelec was in goal for the Jets and he stopped 19 of 22 shots and falls to 6-9-2 on the year.
Marco Dano was making his home debut for the Jets and he logged 11:33 of ice on the third line and had one shot on goal.
The Jets will welcome the New York Islanders to MTS Centre on Thursday night.
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