March 3, 2026; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti (91) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period at the Canada Life Centre. Mandatory Credit: Terrence Lee-Imagn Image The Winnipeg Jets need extra time to get points in the playoffs these days, and the points are coming in little by little.
Since returning from the Olympic break, all four Winnipeg contests have gone into overtime with Thursday’s home game against the suddenly struggling Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks left Winnipeg nine points behind Seattle, which held the final wild card spot entering Wednesday’s game.
The Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are all between coach Scott Arniel’s team and the Kraken’s spot.
Despair permeated the Jets’ locker room as time continued to run out in the regular season and the wild card spot looked ominous.
The Jets have six points (2-0-2) in four games since the resumption of play, but Arniel highlighted the eight points as more important for his club.
That’s the length of a season-long homestand that began Tuesday, and one in which Winnipeg, last season’s President’s Trophy winner, will have to win a lot if it wants to play until at least the end of April.
“We’re talking about eight games, but we needed to get those two (points) tonight against a team that was one game behind us,” Arniel said after the win. “We went right to the wire and found a great way to do it. … We have a tough Tampa team coming here next time and having (the Chicago win) under our belt gives us some confidence.
“We saw the way we had to play.”
Mark Scheifele’s team-leading 28th goal was the game-winner and increased his point total to 73, which leads the Central Division club along with 45 assists. Kyle Connor is second with 68 points (27 goals, 41 assists), and Gabriel Vilardi has 23 points.
The Lightning’s four-game road swing started poorly as the Minnesota Wild trounced coach John Cooper’s team 5-1 in a second straight poor outing for star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who allowed four shots on goal on just 21 shots.
“You come into the locker room after two periods and you think you’re down 3-1 and the wrong team is up 3-1,” Cooper said after the four-goal loss. “I didn’t care how we played, we gave them some gifts.
“…At the end of the day, we’ve given up 16 goals in our last three games. We’ve played 55 games before that, and we’ve never had a stretch like that outside of games early in the year. We’ve kind of strayed from who we are as a team. Defensively, we’ve been exceptional this year, but that’s not the case now. It’s time to really work on it.”
A strong contender to win a second Vezina trophy, Vasilevskiy is 28-9-3, with a 2.26 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. He has two wins, tying Carey Price (361) for 23rd most in NHL history.
Cooper added: “The bottom line is we have to get this done now. We can’t let this slide continue.”
The Lightning are 20-4-1 in their last 25 contests.
They placed center Dominic James (leg) on the injured list Tuesday and recalled Conor Geekie, who averaged 10 minutes, 40 seconds of ice time in seven games and was minus-2.
On the Jets’ injury front, Arniel received encouragement from standout defenseman Josh Morrissey, who skated the last three days and said he could return this weekend.
–Field level media
