Scheifele Strikes With 1.6 Seconds Left as Jets Stun Lightning in Winnipeg

There were 1.6 seconds on the clock when Mark Scheifele ended it. That is how close the Tampa Bay Lightning came to stealing a point in Winnipeg on Sunday night — and how quickly a game that looked finished, then lost, then finished again finally came to rest.

For two periods, this was the Jets' night. Brandon Hagel hit the post 14 seconds into the game, a warning the Lightning would not heed, and after a scoreless first period in which Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside a flurry from Scheifele, Neal Pionk and Gabriel Vilardi, Winnipeg took control. Cole Perfetti opened the scoring 1:53 into the second, firing a one-timer from between the hash marks off a Scheifele pass on the power play. About eleven minutes later Pionk circled behind the net, carried the puck into the faceoff circle and sent a cross-ice pass to Morgan Barron, who hammered home a one-timer to make it 2-0.

The third goal was the prettiest of the night. On a double-minor high-sticking penalty against Pontus Holmberg, Viggo Bjorck slipped a no-look, one-touch pass between his own legs to Brayden Yager, who buried it at 8:10 of the third for his first career NHL goal. Winnipeg led 3-0, the building was loud, and the game looked done.

It was not done. Just over two minutes later Hagel cut the lead to 3-1, and then Holmberg, the same player whose penalty had made it 3-0, took the game over. He slammed home a rebound at 14:01 to make it 3-2, and 26 seconds later he scored again during a scramble in front of the net. In less than half a minute, a three-goal lead was gone, the score was 3-3, and the Jets were staring at one of the worst collapses of their season.

Then Tampa Bay handed it back. Yanni Gourde was penalised for tripping, Erik Cernak was called for closing his hand on the puck, and suddenly Winnipeg had a five-on-three advantage in the final minute of a tied game. The Jets went 3-for-5 on the power play on the night — Tampa Bay finished 0-for-4 — and they made the last one count. Scheifele found the opening with 1.6 seconds left, and the horn sounded on a 4-3 Winnipeg win before the Lightning could even think about overtime.

Bjorck finished with two assists, and Stuart Skinner made 18 saves for Winnipeg, which won its third straight game. Holmberg's two goals and Hagel's goal were not enough for Tampa Bay, whose three-game winning streak came to an end, and Cernak's two assists were cold comfort on a night the Lightning fought all the way back from three goals down only to lose on a late penalty. Vasilevskiy stopped 21 of 25 shots.

It was a strange game in the end: a scoreless first period, a Jets team in total control, a Lightning team that refused to lose, and a finish decided by a penalty, a power play and a captain with less than two seconds to work with. Winnipeg will take the two points and try not to think about how close they came to giving them away.