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Leave it to the Captain to right the ship. Andrew Ladd scored twice and had the shoot out clincher as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. Winnipeg picked up a crucial two points as they are now tied with the New York Rangers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
It took only one minute into the game for Ladd to get going. Bryan Little stripped Eric Brewer at the Jets blue line that led to a 3 on 2 rush for the Jets and Ladd would bury it past Tampa Bay netminder Ben Bishop for the 1-0 lead.
Midway through the period, Ron Hainsey would be caught behind his own net and coughed up the puck to a waiting Martin St Louis who slapped a shot beating Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec to tie the game at one.
The Jets came out strong in the second with Andrew Ladd leading the charge. Ladd made a great move around the Lightning defense and fed Blake Wheeler for the go ahead goal. Ladd scored his 18th of the year on the power play late in the second period to put the Jets up 3-1.
The third period was a completely different story as the Lightning rallied and got goals from Steven Stamkos and Pierre-Cedric Labrie to send the game into overtime. Stamkos now has 27 goals in the shortened season and now trails Alexander Ovechkin by one goal for the Rocket Richard trophy.
Overtime solved nothing and the Jets needed some heroics from shootout specialist Mike Santorelli scoring on the Jets first attempt. After Pavelec stopped Lightning forwards Ted Purcell and Richard Panik, Andrew Ladd scored and sent the MTS Centre crowd into a frenzy for their first shoot out win at home this season.
Jets coach Claude Noel talked about Andrew Ladd’s performance and how it inspired his teammates. “He drives the bus. He was going pretty good,” Noel said. “That’s what [Ladd] can do, [Ladd] can do those things and can really help your team both in the game, on the ice and off the ice.”
The Jets will see action next on Thursday as they take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
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