The Jets went to a 4th straight game with overtime and won 3-2 at home against the Blackhawks on Tuesday. The Jets tied the game late before winning it in overtime, opening their eight game home stand on a positive note. Tonight, the Jets played their second straight game at Canada Life Centre. On the eve of the NHL trade deadline, Jets fans did get to see one “major” move done by the Jets a few hours after tonight’s game (see full details here). The 24-26-10 Jets took on the 38-17-4 Lightning, a team that entered the game on a three game losing streak before previously being on a major hot streak.

There were a few changes to the Jets line combinations tonight, as they sat a few players for “roster management” with the trade deadline looming. Alex Iafallo moved up to the 1st line, while Gabriel Vilardi moved down to line 2. Dylan Samberg was on the top pairing with Dylan DeMelo, while Ville Heinola and Isaak Phillips formed the Jets 3rd pairing. Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn were out for “roster management” reasons, the Jets still have five other players currently out with injuries.

Connor Hellebuyck got the sart in goal, as Hellebuyck continues to play overall well since returning from the Olympics. The Jets lineup continues to deal with several injuries, including Nino Niederreiter, who was recently declared out for the rest of the season. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with 14-16-9 record, a 2.75 GAA and a .902 SV%. Tonight’s game started out fairly even, before the Jets scored two late goals in the 1st period which would eventually propel them to a 4-1 victory.

Tonight’s game started with the Jets getting an early powerplay opportunity which was unsuccessful. The Jets had a strong rest of the 1st period though, outshooting the Lightning 8-5. With just under 5 minutes left in the 1st, Morgan Barron pounced on a rebound from Cole Koepke which was set up by Tanner Pearson, and Barron wristed it by Andrei Vasilevskiy for his 9th of the season.

With time winding down in the first, Kyle Connor made a nice play to start a scoring chance. After feeding the puck back to Alex Iafallo, Scheifele got open near the faceoff dot and got the puck from Iafallo and fired a slap shot into the back of the night. Scheifele’s 29th goal of the season came with just 18 seconds left in the 1st.

The 2nd was scoreless, with both teams getting one powerplay opportunity. Connor Hellebuyck got a tripping penalty just 20 seconds after puck drop, but the Jets shut down the Lightning’s lethal powerplay. With around 7 minutes left in the 2nd, Brandon Hagel was called for tripping, but the Jets were unsuccessful on their second powerplay of the night.  Shots on goal in the 2nd period were 14-7 for the Jets, but this game remained 2-0 Jets thanks to some quality saves from Vasilevskiy.

The 3rd period only had one penalty, which came just around two minutes after the puck dropped. It took the Lightning just seven seconds to score on this powerplay, finally getting on the scoresheet. After the face off draw, Darren Raddysh fired a shot on goal that went a little wide, but the puck was collected by Jake Guentzel off the boards before finding Brayden Point in the slot for a wrister which fooled Hellebuyck for Point’s 15th goal of the season.

The Jets responded well to this goal, and less than four minutes later, the Jets re-gained their two goal lead. Tanner Pearson made a great play to prevent a breakout while intercepting the puck and finding Jonathan Toews. Gustav Nyquist cut towards the goal and got the puck, wristing it into the back of the net. Nyquist finally (finally!) scored his 1st goal of the season, and it was a timely goal to get the Jets back on track for a win.

The Lightning began their push to get back in this game after this goal, but Connor Hellebuyck made some key saves to keep it 3-1. Kyle Connor iced this game with an empty netter with 2 minutes left after an almost tick tack toe play from Alex Iafallo and Mark Scheifele. Despite getting out shot 15-8 in the 3rd, the Jets held on for a well earned 4-1 win. Final shots on goal were 30-27 for the Jets, who stay “perfect” on their eight game home stand.

No overtime was needed after the Jets went to overtime in four straight games prior to tonight!

The Jets will now once again reset for a day, before continuing their season-long eight game homestand (from March 3rd to 17th) on Saturday night. Their regular season schedule continues at Canada Life Centre with a game against the Vancouver Canucks. Puck drop for this game will be just after 6:00 pm CST. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news (including the upcoming trade deadline TODAY), plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.