TAMPA, Fla. -- The spark came from Nikolaj Ehlers right after the Tampa Bay Lightning tied the score in the second period, and his converted penalty shot set up three straight goals as the Winnipeg Jets pulled out a 6-4 win on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.

"Nikky's penalty shot really got us going, gave us a shot of adrenaline," Winnipeg's Blake Wheeler said. "Overall, it's a good win for us. It was nice to get on the right side of things after two tough losses. You go on the road, you want to do the right things, and for the most part we did that tonight."

Ehlers, who added a second goal in the third period, beat goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the penalty shot for a 2-1 lead just 47 seconds after the Lightning tied the score.

Winnipeg (18-19-3) bounced back from two lopsided losses to open a three-game road trip, and Tampa Bay (19-16-4) saw Vasilevskiy match a season high with five goals allowed.

"My first period wasn't very good. I wasn't able to use my speed and things weren't working for me," Ehlers said. "I've had my difficulties on the breakaways and today I thought I would try to do a quick move and shoot it, and it worked out."

Down 5-2 with eight minutes left, Nikita Kucherov scored two power-play goals -- the latter with an empty net in six-on-four play with 2:31 left. Winnipeg put the game away with an empty-net goal by rookie Patrik Laine with 1:23 left.

The Lightning got a goal from Ondrej Palat -- who had drawn three penalties in teh game -- with 16:34 left in the third period to pull within 4-2, but Ehlers answered with a goal six minutes later.

The Lightning, finally converting on their sixth power play of the night, cut the deficit to 5-3 on Kucherov's 14th goal of the season with 7:38 remaining.

Tampa Bay had outshot Winnipeg 17-6 after the first period but still trailed. Winnipeg had no such inefficiency, scoring four goals on its first 16 shots. Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck stopped 32 shots.

"It was men against boys after the first period," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We just deflated after our goal, which was a little bit surprising."

Winnipeg pulled away with three goals in the second period, two within two minutes of the Lightning tying the score at 1 after trailing early.

Lightning rookie Matthew Peca scored his first NHL goal with 16:17 left in the second period to tie it after the Jets led 1-0 after one period despite being outshot 14-2 early.

The first period saw a combined seven penalties in the first 11 minutes, with Winnipeg getting a power-play goal on its first shot as Mark Scheifele scored his 16th goal of the season on a redirect from Laine with 12:35 left in the period.

The Lightning's tying goal had barely been announced when Winnipeg received a penalty shot after Kucherov was called for a penalty as the Jets had a two-on-one.

Ehlers scored on the penalty shot, beating Vasilevskiy to the glove side for a 2-1 lead only 47 seconds after Peca's goal.

Defenseman Jacob Trouba followed with his second goal of the season at 14:41 -- 49 seconds after Ehlers scored -- for a 3-1 lead.

"We just didn't defend -- we thought about one net only and once you do that, then that's it for you. Next thing you know, it's 4-1, and that's a long way to come back," Cooper said. "It's tough in this league to score four goals and lose. We found a way to do that tonight."

Winnipeg added another goal with 5:16 left in the second period as Dustin Byfuglien got one past Vasilevskiy.

Tampa Bay came in with the league's No. 3 power play but went 0-for-5 in the first two periods, twice getting a penalty while on the power play to set up a four-on-four and once turning a power play into a Jets four-on-three advantage in the first period.

NOTES: Tuesday marked the long-awaited return of Lightning F Ryan Callahan, who missed 15 games and more than a month with a hip injury suffered Nov. 29. ... Callahan's return coincided with C Brian Boyle being scratched with an undisclosed injury. ... C Cedric Paquette was sidelined for a sixth game with a lower-body injury. ... LW Adam Erne, 21, was called up to make his NHL debut, the Lightning's third player to do so in as many weeks. ... Lightning C Yanni Gourde and D/F Nikita Nesterov were healthy scratches. ... D Mark Stuart and RW Chris Thorburn were healthy scratches for Winnipeg, which had F Alexander Burmistrov claimed on waivers by the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.