Scheifele Beats the Buzzer, Hellebuyck Blanks Toronto: Sunday in the NHL

WINNIPEG, Manitoba

Six games, and Sunday still found a way to save its best trick for the last two seconds of the night. Winnipeg blew a three-goal lead in the third period and won anyway at 19:58. Toronto got shut out at home by the goalie it will see again in two days \u2014 wearing the other conference\u2019s colors in every sense that matters. Boston and Florida racked up 126 penalty minutes in an afternoon game. And in Anaheim, the hottest scorer in hockey collected his third hat trick in five games. Here is the night, game by game.

Jets 4, Lightning 3 \u2014 Scheifele at 19:58

This one was over, then it wasn\u2019t, then it was over in the loudest way possible. Cole Perfetti opened the scoring on a power play at 1:53 of the second period, one-timing a Mark Scheifele pass past Andrei Vasilevskiy. Morgan Barron made it 2-0 at 12:38, and when Brayden Yager scored his first NHL goal on another power play at 8:10 of the third \u2014 Viggo Bjorck, who finished with two assists, touched Alex Iafallo\u2019s pass over to him at the back post \u2014 Winnipeg led 3-0 and Canada Life Centre was planning the party.

Tampa Bay crashed it in four minutes. Brandon Hagel cut it to 3-1 at 10:22. Pontus Holmberg buried a rebound at 14:01, then scored again 26 seconds later on a near-identical play at the left post to tie it 3-3. The Lightning, playing the second half of a back-to-back after an overtime win in Minnesota on Saturday, had erased a three-goal deficit in a 4:07 burst. Then the finish line bit them: Yanni Gourde was called for tripping and Erik Cernak for closing his hand on the puck in the final minute, handing Winnipeg a 5-on-3. Perfetti dug the puck out of the corner off Ryan McDonagh and slid it cross-ice, and Scheifele one-timed it home with 1.6 seconds left. NHL.com noted it was the league\u2019s latest regulation game-winner since Ryan Graves scored at 59:58 on Feb. 14, 2023 \u2014 the exact same timestamp.

The Jets (7-8-3) have won three straight after a nine-game skid (0-7-2), went 3-for-5 on the power play while Tampa Bay went 0-for-4, and got 18 saves from Stuart Skinner against Vasilevskiy\u2019s 21. The one dark note belongs to the Lightning (11-4-2): Brayden Point left in the first period with an undisclosed injury, and coach Jon Cooper told NHL.com he might miss some time.

Devils 4, Maple Leafs 0 \u2014 Hellebuyck\u2019s First Devils Shutout

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for his first shutout with New Jersey, and the Devils won their fifth straight, 4-0 in Toronto. Acquired from Winnipeg last month after demanding a trade, Hellebuyck became the first goaltender in franchise history to win each of his first five games with the club, according to the Associated Press. It was the 46th shutout of his career.

Timo Meier did the scoring early, ending a nine-game goal drought with two second-period goals \u2014 left alone in front off a faceoff play at 8:28, then deflecting a Jack Hughes shot at 12:44. Nico Hischier\u2019s power-play goal at 9:49 of the third made it 3-0, and the assist he picked up on Meier\u2019s first goal made him the third Swiss-born player in NHL history to reach 500 career points. Connor Brown hit the empty net late. New Jersey (13-5-0) has won nine of its last 10. Toronto (8-9-2) got 25 saves from Anthony Stolarz and has now lost the first three games of a six-game homestand. The subplot writes itself: the Devils visit Winnipeg on Tuesday, Hellebuyck\u2019s first game back \u2014 and general manager Sunny Mehta said Sunday night he will not play, per the AP. The crowd in Winnipeg will have to boo a backup\u2019s baseball cap.

Bruins 4, Panthers 1 \u2014 40 Saves and 126 Penalty Minutes

Boston scored three times in the first period and Jeremy Swayman did the rest, making a season-high 40 saves in a 4-1 win over Florida at TD Garden. Elias Lindholm opened it at 4:50, Mikey Eyssimont \u2014 recalled from Providence on Saturday for his season debut \u2014 stuffed in a wraparound at 6:11 for the game-winner, and Morgan Geekie pushed it to 3-0 before the intermission. JJ Peterka\u2019s goal 58 seconds into the third answered Carter Verhaeghe\u2019s lone strike for Florida. The Bruins (13-4-1) have won four straight and seven in a row at home. The game\u2019s other number was 126 \u2014 combined penalty minutes, with misconducts flying in the final seconds of a scoreless second period. Jacob Markstrom stopped 32 shots for the Panthers (9-7-2), who lost for the second straight day.

Flames 4, Flyers 3 (OT) \u2014 Coronato Finishes a Three-Time Comeback

Calgary never led in regulation and won anyway. The Flames erased three separate one-goal deficits at the Saddledome: Zayne Parekh and Zach Whitecloud scored from the blue line, and Joel Farabee tied it 3-3 with a shorthanded breakaway in the third. In overtime, a collision between two Flyers sprung a 3-on-1, Matvei Gridin fed Matt Coronato in the slot, and Coronato snapped the winner past Dan Vladar at 4:08 \u2014 with 51.7 seconds left in the extra period. Devin Cooley made 32 saves in his return after missing five games with a lower-body injury. Denver Barkey, Noel Acciari and Owen Tippett scored for Philadelphia (4-10-5), still winless in games decided after regulation. Before puck drop, Calgary announced defenseman Kevin Bahl will undergo season-ending surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon.

The Two Games With Their Own Pages

Anaheim\u2019s 5-2 win over Pittsburgh belonged to Cutter Gauthier: three goals, an assist, his third hat trick in five games, 13 goals across a six-game goal streak, and a Ducks team that has scored at least five goals in eight straight games \u2014 the first team to do that since the 1988-89 Los Angeles Kings. The full Gauthier story is on its own page. So is Vegas\u2019 4-1 win in Buffalo, where Jack Eichel scored the game-winner against his former team, Mitch Marner added a shorthanded goal and Tomas Hertl scored twice in the third as the Golden Knights closed a 3-0-1 road trip with their third straight win \u2014 Eichel in Buffalo, in full.

Put the night together and the league\u2019s shape sharpens a little: Boston and New Jersey keep stacking wins in the East, Anaheim\u2019s offense is doing something nobody has done in 37 years, and Winnipeg \u2014 nine losses in a row not long ago \u2014 has won three straight, the last of them at 19:58. The scoring race and every streak above live in the Stats Hub. Tuesday brings the week\u2019s best storyline back around: New Jersey at Winnipeg, with Hellebuyck in the building and, apparently, in a ball cap.