Tampa Bay @ Winnipeg preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 16, 2019 ) Winnipeg 4, Tampa Bay 3

The Winnipeg Jets ended a baffling six-game losing streak at home last time out and look to put two wins together at the Bell MTS Place when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night. Connor Hellebuyck recorded his franchise-record 18th shutout with 41 saves as the Jets snapped a 0-5-1 run at home Tuesday with a 4-0 victory over Vancouver, winning for the fourth time in 11 games overall.

Winnipeg won the first meeting this season 4-3 in Tampa Bay on Nov. 16 and the Jets have points in five of the last seven matchups (4-2-1), but they are playing a Lightning team that has won 11 of its last 13 games. “They’re a team that’s playing really good hockey as of late,” Winnipeg defenseman Luca Sbisa told NHL.com. “The stuff we worked on (Thursday) was basically just creating more traffic in front of the net. Against a team like that, you want to control the puck in their zone. You want to get it deep and let our forwards do the work.” Tampa Bay, which has scored only seven goals in the last four games, may be a bit angry when they arrive after suffering a 3-2 loss at Minnesota on Thursday as Nikita Kucherov scored the only two goals to take over the team lead with 20. “Our scoring has dried up here the last few games and part of that is we have to get the puck to the net,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “. … There’s just got to be a little more urgency in the offensive zone. We’ve got to get the dirty ones. We haven’t been earning those dirty ones (lately).”

TIME: 8 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, TVA, TSN3

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (28-15-4): Kucherov has scored seven times over the last 10 games and boasts 12 of his team-high 52 points in that stretch - six more than captain Steven Stamkos, who added an assist Thursday. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh returned to the lineup against Minnesota after missing seven games with an upper-body injury while power forward Pat Maroon could be back as soon as Friday from the same ailment after missing three contests. Andrei Vasilevskiy (23-9-2, .916 save percentage), who was rested in the first leg of the back-to-back Thursday, is expected to go after his 10th straight victory and try to maintain his gaudy .961 SP in January.

ABOUT THE JETS (25-18-4): Hellebuyck notched his fourth shutout of the season Tuesday while improving to 3-1-1 with a .949 save percentage over the past five contests and coach Paul Maurice told reporters he made some saves “look far easier than they were,” in the win over Vancouver. Center Mark Scheifele has posted 12 of his team-high 52 points in the last eight games and Connor is second on the team with 47 after collecting three goals and three assists in the past four contests. Carl Dahlstrom is expected to be out six weeks after breaking his hand Tuesday and fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov could return to the lineup after missing the Vancouver game because of illness.

OVERTIME

1. Tampa Bay LW Alex Killorn has matched his career high with 19 goals and scored 10 of them in the past 15 contests.

2. Winnipeg RW Patrik Laine has three assists in his last three games to match his career high (2016-17) of 28.

3. The Jets are 7-for-18 on the power play over the last eight contests and the Lightning are 34-for-37 on the kill the past 11 games.

PREDICTION: Lightning 4, Jets 3