Dylan Samberg scored the tiebreaking goal with 12:22 remaining in regulation, and the Winnipeg Jets won 7-4 over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.
Roughly 47 seconds after Tampa Bay tied it at 4-4, Kyle Connor carried the puck around the net and fed Samberg, whose point shot zipped past Lightning goaltender Jonas Johansson (27 saves).
Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti added empty-netters while Vladislav Namestnikov, Logan Stanley, Mark Scheifele and Alex Iafallo also scored for the Jets, who overcame a 2-0 hole to secure a franchise-best 11-1-0 start to the season.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal with an assist for Tampa Bay, which has dropped two straight after winning three consecutive.
Tampa Bay struck 6:49 into the contest. Brandon Hagel’s initial shot hit the crossbar, then after the puck squirted free from a net-front scrum, he trailed in to convert. On a power play 1:13 later, Brayden Point successfully one-timed Kucherov’s pass into the slot.
However, Point suffered an apparent injury and did not return after the first period.
Winnipeg got on the board with 7:37 remaining in the first. In his own zone, the Lightning’s Nick Perbix sent the puck right to Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey, who slid it to Namestnikov for the close-up conversion.
More shoddy Tampa Bay play allowed the Jets to take the lead over a 1:47 span of the second period.
Following a second Perbix turnover, Ehlers found Stanley to score from the point. Moments later, Ryan McDonagh whiffed on a pass that turned into a go-ahead goal from Scheifele, via a two-on-one with Gabriel Vilardi.
However, an open Mitchell Chaffee leveled the score for the Lightning with 11:21 left in the second when he converted from the right wing.
The Jets went back ahead 4:03 into the third when an open Iafallo chipped in an end-line pass from Nino Niederreiter on the power play. But the Lightning answered again, at 6:51 into the final period, when Kucherov poke-checked the puck off the stick of Namestnikov and past an unsuspecting Connor Hellebuyck (26 saves) to make it 4-4.
Connor also appeared to injure himself late in the contest for Winnipeg.
