"The Panthers circled the first four games coming out of the All-Star break as extremely important to their challenge of trying to end an NHL-record, 11-year postseason drought.

So far, things couldn't have worked out better.

Florida won its second consecutive game against a divisional rival on Friday, beating Winnipeg 2-1 at BankAtlantic Center as Kris Versteeg and Sean Bergenheim scored with Scott Clemmensen continuing his hot streak with 20 saves.

The Panthers continue their run through the Southeast Division on Saturday in Tampa as Clemmensen returns to the net. Florida is now 9-2-3 within the division and hold a three-point lead on Washington. The Jets dropped to five points back of the Panthers as they are now 0-9 in the second game of a back-to-back set. The Jets beat the Lightning in OT on Thursday.

Winnipeg has been outscored 35-6 in those nine games.

"This is what we need,'' said Versteeg, who now has six goals in Florida's past three games (all wins) against the former Atlanta Thrashers. "You look at the standings every day and see where you are, where other teams are. Obviously you want to play in these kind of games because of the severity of the points. We know what is at stake every game. We need to put a long winning streak together.''"