After a pair of come-from-behind wins on the road over the weekend, the Winnipeg Jets returned home and dropped a 4-3 decision to the Seattle Kraken Tuesday night.
Most of the play over the first ten minutes took place in Seattle’s zone, but it was the visitors who got on the board first at the 8:45 mark.
After Brenden Dillon fumbled the puck at the Kraken blueline, all three Jets forwards were caught low as Seattle pushed the puck up the ice. Eventually, Justin Schultz got the puck on his stick in the slot and beat Connor Hellebuyck through the five-hole to open the scoring.
It stayed 1-0 into the second despite Winnipeg outshooting Seattle 14-7 in the first.
Just over eight minutes into the second period, the Jets evened the score. Mark Scheifele carried the puck into the Seattle end and fed the puck cross-ice to Kyle Connor, who ripped a wrister past Joey Daccord for his 26th of the season. The assist for Scheifele was the 700th point of his NHL career.
The Jets got the game’s first power play opportunity late in the period but instead of building momentum, Seattle regained the lead shorthanded. Jared McCann was sprung on a long breakaway and beat Hellebuyck high over the glove to make it 2-1 with 2:04 to go in the second.
It appeared that Seattle would carry that advantage into the intermission but with just 8.7 seconds left, Mason Appleton found Adam Lowry cutting into the slot and the captain buried his ninth of the season to level the score after 40 minutes.
That line got Winnipeg its first lead of the game just 1:17 into the third. Appleton fed a hard-charging Nino Niederreiter whose initial shot from in close was stopped but the rebound bounced off Niederreiter’s skate and fluttered over Daccord.
Winnipeg lead lasted exactly 25 seconds.
On the ensuing shift, Tomas Tatar tipped a Matty Beniers shot through Hellebuyck to make it 3-3.
It stayed tied deep into the third when Logan Stanley was called for a slashing penalty, sending Seattle to its first power play of the night.
Winnipeg almost killed it off before Andre Burakovsky sent a wrister on goal that squeezed through Hellebuyck, making it 4-3 with just 2:39 remaining.
The Jets pulled the goalie and with less than 30 seconds left they earned a power play, making it a 6-on-4 chance to close out the third but they couldn’t find the equalizer as Daccord make a sprawling save in the dying seconds to earn the win.
The loss was Winnipeg’s first on home ice since Jan. 27 and first loss at home to a Western Conference opponent since Nov. 30.
The two teams will meet again in Seattle Friday night after the NHL trade deadline comes to pass.