PITTSBURGH – Defenseman Kris Letang had five assists to help the Pittsburgh Penguins overcome two one-goal deficits and defeat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3 at Consol Energy Center on Tuesday.
Brandon Sutter gave Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead 7:52 into the third period and forward Patric Hornqvist added an empty-net goal with 27.3 seconds remaining. Hornqvist returned from a lower-body injury that caused him to miss the past 11 games, and is tied with Chris Kunitz for third on Pittsburgh with 14 goals.
Letang returned after missing one game because of a concussion.
The Penguins (27-12-8) won despite playing without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who each missed the game with lower-body injuries. The Jets (26-15-8) saw their five-game winning streak end. They have lost fourteen consecutive games against Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh faced a 3-2 deficit early in the third period, but forward David Perron scored his sixth goal in nine games with the Penguins to tie the game. With Blake Wheeler in the penalty box for slashing, Perron dug a rebound off a Letang slap shot past Pavelec to tie the game 3-3 at 4:23.
After surrendering a one-goal lead late in the second period, Winnipeg reestablished that lead within the first minute of the third. Jets forward Chris Thorburn received a stretch pass from Evander Kane and had the puck poked off his stick by Penguins defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and to Lowry, who got a wrist shot by Thomas Greiss to give the Jets a 3-2 lead 59 seconds into the third.
Lowry and Thorburn each finished with one goal and one assist.
Thorburn's goal came early in the second period to tie the game 1-1, following a lackluster first period for Winnipeg. Shortly after being released from the penalty box, Thorburn beat Kunitz to a pass from Lowry and tipped the puck over Greiss' blocker 2:13 into the second.
Thorburn has scored one goal in three of his past four games after scoring one goal through his first 44 games.
The Jets had a chance to take a 2-1 lead just over two minutes later when Jim Slater rung a slap shot off of the left post, but would eventually take a one-goal lead when Jacob Trouba's slap shot avoided the post, and made its way through a screen by Mathieu Perreault to get by Greiss with 7:13 remaining in the first.
Winnipeg seemed poised to carry the lead into the third, but Steve Downie's goal with 4.6 seconds remaining in the second tied the game 2-2. Downie slid a pass to defenseman to the right faceoff circle, where Letang one-timed a slap shot off of Pavelec's pads.
The rebound bounced out to Downie, who pushed a wrist shot into the net for his ninth goal.
The Penguins dominated the first period, in large part because of Perron's performance.
A few minutes after stickhandling through two defensemen and sending a wrist shot wide of the Winnipeg net, Perron played a key role in setting up Pittsburgh's first goal. Perron carried the puck past the goal line to the right of the net, drawing Pavelec toward the right post and sent a pass out in front, where forwards Nick Spaling and Beau Bennett were converging on the goal.
Spaling beat Perreault to the pass and tipped it into the open net for a 1-0 lead 7:09 into the first.
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