Scheifele scores hat trick, Jets bounce back with win against Panthers

WINNIPEG -- Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick for the Winnipeg Jets in a 6-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

The hat trick was Scheifele’s first of the season and ninth in the NHL.

“Honestly, I’m so lucky to play with the guys that I play with,” Scheifele said. “[Kyle Connor] made an amazing pass on the hat trick goal. [Nikolaj Ehlers], an amazing pass. [Gabriel Vilardi], a great drive through. I’m blessed to play with the guys that I play with. They were fantastic tonight.”

Morgan Barron scored two short-handed goals, and Connor had a goal and an assist for the Jets (16-3-0), who had lost two in a row. Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves, and Josh Morrissey and Ehlers each had two assists.

“That’s huge for us, to be able to close out those games,” Barron said of his two empty-net goals coming 21 seconds apart in the final two minutes. “It’s something that we’re going to continue to learn how to do and hopefully get to that point. A lot of guys stepped up, so that’s good to see.”

Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart scored to extend his point streak to 11 games for the Panthers (12-6-1), who defeated the Jets 5-0 at home on Saturday but have lost three of four (1-3-0). Sergei Bobrovsky made 21 saves.

“It's tough to lose that one when you fight back to get close,” Tkachuk said. “Then you have a power play, and then feel like we have all the momentum there… It’s a hard fought two games by two good teams, in my opinion. It just would have been nice to get this one.

Said Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel of the previous loss against Florida: “Our whole group was (frustrated). [Scheifele] came out and was a leader. He led. When your best players can be your best players in games like that, it certainly helps you have success."

Connor gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 14:13 of the first period, cutting to the slot and scoring on the backhand.

“They got off to a lead in the first. It's always important to get that first goal, it’s kind of that playoff mindset,” Tkachuk said. “They’re a good team. They're good at home, they play hard and they're a deep team like us. So, I just think it continues to show that if we play our game we can compete with the best and be one of them.”

Scheifele made it 2-0 at 17:40 when Vilardi dropped it to him for a wrist shot from the top of the circle. He then scored a power-play goal to push it to 3-0 at 15:41 of the second period with a one-timer from below the left face-off dot.

“[Vilardi’s] stick is just fantastic,” Scheifele said. “He has a knack for holding onto the puck, being strong along the wall, having a very crafty stick. He's a fantastic player. Like I've said before, I'm lucky to play with a guy like him. And he was fantastic tonight.”

A.J. Greer cut it to 3-1 at 17:24 when his point shot deflected in off the leg of Jets forward Adam Lowry.

“We're definitely not happy with the result,” Greer said. “You like to see the fight again and the resiliency in the third period. It’s just not good enough, though.”

Reinhart cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal at 7:10 of the third period. He has 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) during his point streak.

Scheifele scored again on the power play to make it 4-2 at 9:46 of the third when Connor’s cross-slot feed found him for another one-timer.

Tkachuk then scored on the power play to make it 4-3 at 16:38.

“They have a fantastic team over there,” Arniel said of the Panthers. “[Aleksander] Barkov, Reinhart, those guys play a solid game and they don’t give you a lot. We, as a team, we wanted to better than we were the other night and we showed that.”

With Florida pulling its goalie for a 6-on-4 advantage on the power play, Barron scored short-handed into an empty net to extend it to 5-3 at 18:23, banking a shot off the boards near the Winnipeg blue line.

“If I’m going to shoot it down anyways, I figured I might as well put it in a place that has a chance,” Barron said. “My thought was to just kind of get it down to the other end of the ice.”

Barron scored short-handed again into an empty net at 18:44 for the 6-3 final.

“We didn’t like the way that we played in Florida, so it’s just a sign of a lot of good character in this room,” Scheifele said. “That we wanted to bounce back and we wanted to have a good game in front of our home crowd before we go on the road for what feels like forever (season-long six game road trip). It was a great all-around effort by everyone.”

NOTES: Scheifele passed former teammate Patrik Laine (eight) for the second-most hat tricks in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise history behind Ilya Kovalchuk (11). … Barron became the second player in Jets/Thrashers history to score multiple short-handed goals in a game, joining Marian Hossa (Dec. 19, 2006). … Reinhart’s point streak is his second of at least 11 games with Florida (13 games in 2023-24). He became the second player in Panthers history to record multiple point streaks of 11 or more games, joining Pavel Bure (three times: 13 games in 1999-00, 11 games in 2000-01, and 11 games in 1999-00).