The Florida Panthers came home Thursday night to finish their home-and-home with the Winnipeg Jets after a 5-1 win in Winnipeg on Tuesday. The rematch at Amerant Bank Arena arrived with Florida on 16 points and Winnipeg still trying to stop a slide that had stretched to seven games without a win.
That first meeting was lopsided from the start. Carter Verhaeghe scored twice on the power play, Brady Tkachuk finished with a goal and two assists, Mathhew Tkachuk had four assists, Niko Mikkola added a goal and an assist, Sam Reinhart scored on the power play and Seth Jones piled up three assists as Florida controlled the game at Canada Life Center.
Florida’s special teams have been a major reason the Panthers have kept moving. Their power play was running at 39.4 percent over its last eight games, and the club entered this game after completing a four-game road trip with four points. That kind of efficiency matters against a Winnipeg team that had already conceded six goals in a 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Wednesday night.
The Jets were expected to turn to Nico Daws, who had stopped all nine shots he faced in relief of Stuart Skinner. He was also expected to make his first start for Winnipeg that evening, a decision that fit the urgency around a team that had scored enough to stay in games but had not found a way to finish them. Dylan Samberg, Neal Pionk and Kyle Connor scored against Tampa Bay, but Pontus Holmberg’s empty-net goal sealed another loss.
That is the problem Winnipeg brought into the rematch. The Jets did not just need a different result; they needed a reason to believe the pattern could change, and starting Daws was the clearest sign they were searching for one. Florida, meanwhile, arrived with the cleaner read: a team that had already handled Winnipeg once, with the power play clicking and the gap between the two sides looking wider than the standings alone suggested.
The unanswered piece was whether Daws would actually get the crease against Florida. The setup pointed to him, but the final word on the lineup would tell whether Winnipeg was standing by the same bet or making one more change after two straight nights of pressure.
