‘Great team effort’ lifts Jets over Lightning 4-1

Unlikely? For sure. Impossible? Perhaps. Just don’t tell that to the Winnipeg Jets, who aren’t going to go quietly into the night when it comes to their pursuit of a playoff spot.

An impressive — dare we say dominant?— 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday proves there’s plenty of fight left in this group.

On a night when seven regular skaters were out of the lineup for various reasons, the Jets came up with the type of complete, 60-minute effort that has been in short supply this season. And they did it against a powerhouse opponent, one that is a legitimate Stanley Cup favourite.

“It was a great team effort,” said centre Mark Scheifele, whose team-leading 29th goal ended up being the game-winner. “We knew we had a tough challenge ahead of us. The boys just rallied around and had a great game. It was fun to be a part of.”

The Jets have now collected points in all five games coming out of the Olympic break (3-0-2) and have pulled to within seven points of the final Western Conference wildcard playoff spot, currently held by the Seattle Kraken. Both teams have 21 games remaining.

“At the end of the day, we’re still chasing a playoff spot. That’s what I’ve tried to keep their focus on,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said about blocking out all the noise surrounding his team right now.

Connor Hellebuyck was outstanding in net, stopping 26 of 27 shots he faced. Gustav Nyquist scored his first goal with the Jets — in his 40th game of the year — while Morgan Barron (ninth), Scheifele and Kyle Connor (into an empty net, a few minutes after Scheifele negated his 28th due to being offside) had the other tallies.

“There was no chance I was shooting another puck the rest of the game. I was going to do everything in my power to get him that goal back, because I was so mad at myself,” Scheifele said of making it up to Connor by feeding him for the freebie.

He joked that his phone was going to be blowing up with texts from his friends, including personal skills coach Adam Oates.

“I’m going to be hearing about that for a while,” said Scheifele.

The relief was written all over the face of Nyquist, who was signed in the summer to add secondary scoring for the Jets following the loss of Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency, yet hadn’t lit the lamp in an NHL game since April 2025 when he was a member of the Minnesota Wild.

“It felt real good to get that one, and with that, the win,” Nyquist said of snapping the longest slump of his career. “Overall I felt we played a really good game all throughout.”

The Jets now have just four regulation losses in the last 19 games (10-4-5), while Tampa is trending in the other direction. The Lightning, who once had a huge Atlantic Division lead, have lost four straight games and are now tied in points with the surging Buffalo Sabres.

“We did a lot of really good things. We won a lot of puck battles. We played fast. Played north as quick as we possibly could. And then I really like the way we attacked, got inside and attacked their net,” said Arniel.

TRADE WINDS BLOWING?

You may have felt a stiff, sudden breeze outside the downtown rink shortly before puck drop.

That’s because the Jets made a pair of surprising late scratches in defencemen Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn. Both are pending unrestricted free agents, and sitting them for “roster management” purposes certainly adds fuel to the speculation that they will be moved prior to Friday’s 2 p.m. trade deadline.

That wasn’t the original plan earlier in the day, with Arniel saying he expected Stanley and Schenn to play. He added that things “could change” — and they obviously did.

“It’s not fun,” Scheifele said of the increased speculation. “But that’s the business. I don’t think I’ve been through that in a long time. It’s something where you had to re-focus before the game.”

Stanley, 27, is certainly Winnipeg’s most valuable expiring contract chip as he enjoys a career season, which has included a heavy workload and offensive highs in goals (nine) and points (21). There had been ongoing talks with the Jets about a potential extension, but those seemingly proved to be futile.

Schenn, 36, is a depth defender at this stage of his career but does have two Stanley Cups on his resume.

Could they be packaged together? There were multiple reports late Thursday evening out of Buffalo that the Sabres — who thought they had a deal to obtain Colton Parayko only to have him exercise his no-trade clause and decline Thursday morning — were on the cusp of obtaining both.

The Jets have 10 pending UFAs on their active roster. The only other one held out Thursday was defenceman Colin Miller, who hasn’t played since January due to injury and suffered a setback earlier this week. He’s considered week-to-week.

The other seven — forwards Nyquist (one goal), Tanner Pearson (two assists), Jonathan Toews (one assist), Cole Koepke (one assist) and Walker Duehr, defenceman Ville Heinola and backup goaltender Eric Comrie — all suited up.

“It’s a really tough situation. I talked to the team beforehand. You know, you’re sitting out two guys that have been teammates for the last few years. It’s hard. There’s relationship there,” said Arniel.

“Those guys, they have family. It’s easy for people to just say ‘Trade that guy, trade this guy.’ Well, there’s some human aspect of it with family and kids and all those things. Friendships. It’s very hard on everybody. For us, right before the game, we hadn’t really had that. I thought our veteran guys handled it really well and helped push everybody along.”

KEY PLAY

Nyquist’s goal at 5:34 of the third period not only shed a massive monkey off his back, it restored Winnipeg’s two-goal cushion just a few moments after Brayden Point had scored on the power play for the visitors.

“Amazing. I don’t think I’ve cheered that loud on the bench in a long time,” Scheifele said of Nyquist. “Just an amazing guy. One of my best friends on the team. I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s a guy that comes in, works hard and gives it his all.”

THREE STARS:

1. WPG G Connor Hellebuyck: 26 saves

2. WPG C Mark Scheifele: 1 goal, 1 assist

3. WPG RW Gustav Nyquist: 1 goal

EXTRA, EXTRA

With Stanley and Schenn sidelined, that opened the door for Heinola to come into the lineup and also required Isaak Phillips to be called up from the Manitoba Moose.

Winnipeg went 0-for-2 on the power play, while Tampa Bay went 1-for-2.

A crowd of 13,473 — one of the smallest of the season — was on hand for this one.

The Jets are slated to hold an optional practice on Friday while they await word on what, if any, changes might be coming to the club.

The Jets return to action on Saturday when they host the league-worst Vancouver Canucks in the third game of this eight-game homestand. There is hope Josh Morrissey could be ready to return. The other injured players — Miller, Neal Pionk, Vlad Namestnikov and Nino Niederreiter — will require further time.

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