Lowry scores winner in 3rd period as Jets beat Ducks, gain ground in playoff race

Adam Lowry scored the tiebreaking goal with 9:13 to play and the visiting Winnipeg Jets made progress in the playoff race with a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.

After Frank Vatrano tied it for Anaheim early in the third with a power-play goal, Lowry put the Jets back ahead with a short redirection of a pass from Brenden Dillon for his third goal in four games.

Mason Appleton scored the first goal for Winnipeg, which has beaten Anaheim in five straight meetings, including a three-game sweep this season.

WATCH | Lowry scores winner against Ducks:

Winnipeg is in the second wild-card slot in the Western Conference with 85 points and nine games to play, one point behind Seattle. Nashville, which beat the Kraken in a shootout earlier Thursday, is five points behind the Jets, but the Predators have three games in hand.

Cam Fowler also scored and Lukas Dostal stopped 30 shots for the lottery-bound Ducks, who dropped to 1-4-1 on their eight-game homestand with their third consecutive defeat.

Fowler scored his career-best 43rd point with a goal in the first period on a knuckling shot that threaded a path among three Anaheim teammates.

Appleton evened it 45 seconds later and Connor then scored late in the second period on remarkably similar plays, knocking in loose pucks after rebounds trickled underneath Dostal.

Vatrano tied it with a low shot from the blue line while Derek Grant screened Hellebuyck in a rare mistake by the Jets' second-ranked penalty killers. The goal was Vatrano's 18th of the season, matching his total in each of the past two seasons with Florida and the Rangers.

The Jets face the Kings in Los Angeles on Saturday.