WINNIPEG, Manitoba _ The Flyers' flickering playoff hopes have almost faded to black.
They moved closer toward being eliminated as they lost to injury-ravaged Winnipeg, 3-2, at the MTS Centre on Tuesday night.
The Flyers had little attack time against a Jets defense filled with AHL call-ups, and they played yet another uninspiring game on the road, where they have just four wins in their last 22 games (4-15-3).
Opening a make-or-break four-game trip, they were soundly outplayed and they remain seven points out of a playoff spot with 10 games left.
Blake Wheeler fired a right-circle shot past Steve Mason's glove to give Winnipeg a 2-1 lead with 12 minutes, 58 seconds left.
With 11:49 remaining, the Flyers' struggling power play had a chance to tie it. Instead, they went in reverse. Winnipeg had a 3-1 shots edge while short-handed.
Defenseman Michael Del Zotto had a close power-play shot, but goalie Michael Hutchinson kicked it aside. That made the Flyers 3 for 38 (7.9 percent) on the power play in their last 10 games.
Mark Scheifele iced it with a little over six minutes left, scoring from the left circle after Andrew MacDonald and Jordan Weal misconnected on a pass.
The Jets, who are virtually out of the playoff race, had lost six straight to the Flyers, who got to within 3-2 with two seconds left.
The Jets used a goalie, Hutchinson, who had been their third-stringer last month and was starting his first game since Jan. 16. Winnipeg's defense had five regulars sidelined by injuries, and its blue line had three recent AHL call-ups, including Nelson Nogier, who made his NHL debut.
Hutchinson wasn't tested much in the first 40 minutes, but the Flyers struck first on Weal's fourth goal in his last 10 games.
Hutchinson turned aside Wayne Simmonds from in close, but the right winger grabbed the rebound, patiently waited behind the net, and found Weal for a one-timer in front, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 15:32 left in the second period.
"It was a good transition by us," Weal said. "When we got the puck in the neutral zone, we were attacking right away. I thought we had a good four-man attack."
But the Flyers' penalty kill quickly gave it back.
About 2 { minutes after Weal's goal, Mathieu Perreault tied it as he deflected Wheeler's point drive past a screened Mason while the Flyers were killing a delay-of-game penalty. At that point, opponents had 10 goals in their last 24 power-play chances against the Flyers in the last nine games.
The Flyers had little offense the rest of the second period, primarily because they had to kill off an additional six minutes of penalties. Over the first two periods, the Jets had 9:45 of power-play time, while the Flyers had two minutes.
The Jets entered the night with 249 penalties, the most in the NHL.
The Flyers managed just 14 shots over the first two periods against an inexperienced defense and a goalie who struggled with his rebound control the few times he was tested.
The Flyers were coming off a dramatic late rally that produced a 4-3 overtime win over Carolina on Sunday, but the momentum didn't carry into a scoreless first period in which most of the action was in the neutral zone.
In fact, neither team had any high-quality scoring chances in an uneventful first period in which the Jets outshot the Flyers, 8-7, and won 70 percent of the faceoffs. The Flyers never got their forecheck clicking in the first _ or in the second, a period that was spent in their defensive end.
The Flyers will resume their four-game trip Thursday in Minnesota, then travel to Columbus and Pittsburgh.
"We have to win our games and get help from around the league," right winger Jake Voracek said before the game. "It's not only in our hands, but we have to do our job."
"We're in the fight. Every two points is critical," coach Dave Hakstil said. "We don't have any more that we can let go, and we have to make sure we take care of things we can control."
