Scheifele scores with 1.6 seconds left, Jets recover against Lightning

WINNIPEG -- Mark Scheifele scored a power-play goal with 1.6 seconds remaining, and the Winnipeg Jets recovered after blowing a three-goal, third-period lead to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 at Canada Life Centre on Sunday.

Scheifele beat the buzzer during a 5-on-3 man-advantage with a one-timer from the left hash marks. Cole Perfetti made the play happen by stealing the puck from Ryan McDonagh in the corner before sending a cross-ice pass over to Scheifele.

“(Perfetti and Gabriel Vilardi were) both getting dirty in the corner and making a great play,” Scheifele said. “That was an unbelievable pass by 'Fetts.' Don’t quit until the buzzer, and that was exactly that.

“Cortisol levels can’t handle that. Way too much stress and anxiety. At the end of the day, we’re happy with the win and we’ll move on to the next one."

Scheifele’s goal came after the Lightning had rallied from three goals down in the third period, which included tying the game on two goals in 26 seconds from forward Pontus Holmberg.

Holmberg first cut it to 3-2 at 14:01 by burying a rebound into an open net at the left post. He then tied it 3-3 on a similar play at 14:27, coming from behind the net to knock in another rebound at the left post with his backhand.

“It's never over,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “The crazy might happen, and we've seen a couple in the last three games, some big instances of that, but at the end of the day for me, you've got to play the game out. You never know. This is sports and crazy stuff happens. We've had a history of this. This isn't just the other night in Montreal (when the Jets rallied from four goals down late in the third period for a 5-4 overtime win) or just tonight. ... That’s a really good Tampa Bay team over there, and there's a push. We just have to recognize that when that push comes we have to hopefully handle that a little bit better.”

Perfetti, Brayden Yager and Morgan Barron scored, and Viggo Bjorck had two assists for the Jets (7-8-3), who have won three straight after losing their previous nine (0-7-2). Stuart Skinner made 18 saves.

Winnipeg's next game will be against the New Jersey Devils, who they traded Connor Hellebuyck to on Oct. 23, on Tuesday.

“This has been an (18)-game wave,” Arniel said. “It started before we got to training camp, and it’s been kind of up and down, and obviously we were down for a long stretch there, but now we’re back up again, feeling good. I still have to throw this on our leadership. Our guys in our room have done a really good job of kind of keeping the noise away. Even with the goaltender situation, that was one where the guys handled it professionally and first class. Even the losing part, losing the nine games, we never came apart. We were really still pushing each other hard and staying together. ... That’s what you have to do. You go through tough times. Every team is going to do it, good times, tough times. We’re in a good one right now. Let’s try to ride this one as long as we can.”

Brandon Hagel scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves for the Lightning (11-4-2), who had won three in a row and lost in regulation for the first time in seven games (4-1-2). Erik Cernak had two assists.

“We went down 3-0 as a team, we came back from three down in the last few minutes of the game as a team, and we ended up coughing it up as a team,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “And there's no pointing fingers at one player, it's a team sport.”

Tampa Bay was playing the second game of a back-to-back after rallying for a 4-3 overtime win at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday, when it scored twice in the final 6:16 of the third period to tie the game.

“We played two games in less than 24 hours with travel, and I think the boys went to bed at 3 a.m. last night,” Cooper said. “We were a gassed group, and sometimes the first thing to go is the mind, not the legs. And that’s -- well, everybody saw what happened in the last two minutes of the game, and it's unfortunate. But part of it is, give the guys credit, we could have easily just mailed that one in, pulled the goalie, gave up an empty netter and been down 4-0 and say, ‘Chalk it up to a late back-to-back.’ Instead, they gutted one out and we pushed it for 59 minutes and 59 seconds. It just (stinks) the way it ended.”

Lightning forward Brayden Point left the game in the first period with an undisclosed injury..

“Hopefully it's not too serious,” Cooper said. “But unfortunately he might miss some time.”

Perfetti gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 1:53 of the second period, scoring a power-play goal with a one-timer from the slot off a short pass from Scheifele.

Barron made it 2-0 at 12:38. Just 10 seconds after the Jets killed off a penalty, Neal Pionk skated around the net and fed a cross-ice pass to Barron, who scored with a one-timer from the right circle.

Yager scored his first NHL goal to push the lead to 3-0 at 8:10 of the third period. Alex Iafallo’s pass to the crease was one-touched by Bjorck toward the back post, where Yager banged it into an open net for a power-play goal.

“That was really cool,” said Yager, who was playing in his sixth NHL game. “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 it over to me, and I had a pretty wide-open net. Unbelievable feeling. Dream come true.”

Hagel cut it to 3-1 at 10:22. Anthony Cirelli stole the puck from Yager below the goal line, and Hagel skated out in front and scored with a deke to his forehand.

“The team came back, the team was resilient, the team didn't give up and just go out as a bad game,” Hagel said. “We pushed, whether that was for 20 out of 60 of the minutes or whatever it was, we still found a way to come back."

NOTES: Scheifele’s goal at 59:58 was the League’s latest game-winning goal in regulation since Ryan Graves on Feb. 14, 2023 (also 59:58). ... Scheifele has six points (two goals, four assists) on a three game point streak. ... Lightning forward Yanni Gourde had a shot, three hits and was 9-for-17 on face-offs in 15:41 of ice time in his season debut. He missed the first 16 games while recovering from hip surgery he had this offseason. ... Winnipeg defenseman Dylan Samberg played in his 300th NHL game. He had a hit and blocked a shot in 23:25 of ice time.