Jets stay alive with 4-0 win over Dallas

By CityNews Staff and Sportsnet Staff

The Winnipeg Jets have kept their season alive as they defeated the Dallas Stars 4-0 in Game 5.

Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 22 shots he faced, and the Jets got goals from Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Vladislav Namestnikov.

Just over six minutes into the second period, Scheifele tried to pass the puck to one of his teammates, however, it bounced off a Stars defender who was standing in his crease and into the Dallas net to make it 1-0 for Winnipeg.

Early in the second period, the Stars took back-to-back tripping penalties behind their own net, giving the Jets a 5-on-3 power play.

On the two-man advantage, Ehlers would fire the puck under Jake Oettinger to give the Jets a 2-0 lead.

Just over halfway through the third, on another power play, Namestnikov fired it past Oettinger to make it 3-0 for the Jets.

Ehlers would add an empty net goal late in the third to make it 4-0 for Winnipeg, scoring his second of the game.

Game 6 will go Saturday in Dallas.

‘Got to deal with’ daunting odds in must-win Game 5

Trailing 3-1 in their best-of-seven series with the Dallas Stars, the Winnipeg Jets have a daunting mountain to climb. 

Since the NHL’s inception, only 32 teams have come back to win a facing a 3-1 series deficit. Better yet, a miraculous comeback would require this team to win a road playoff game — which they haven’t done since 2019 (excluding the COVID bubble post-season). 

Granted, nothing about this season for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners has been easy. Or predictable. 

They wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for the “Manitoba Miracle” in Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues. 

Nor would they have had home ice in these Stanley Cup playoffs if they weren’t able to fend off the red-hot Stars at the tail-end of the regular season.

“We’ve dealt with adversity all year,” Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo told reporters ahead of Game 5. “Nobody said it’d be easy, obviously we’d love to be up 3-1, or (tied) 2-2, but we’re not. So we’ve got to deal with what the situation is.”

And right now, the situation, or rather, their game, needs a serious tune-up. 

By now, we know that it’s unrealistic to expect this team to edge out a 2-1 playoff win. Coming off two road losses where they were outscored a combined 8-3, all eyes are on Winnipeg’s offence.

Their power play has been virtually unrecognizable — converting on 15.8 per cent of their post-season man-advantages, a far cry from their regular-season output (28.9) — and for all the zone time they’ve sustained during five-on-five, they’ve hardly tested Jake Oettinger.

“Life at this time of year, it’s got to be hard on the goaltender,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “(Oettinger) can’t see those shots that come from up above. And then again it’s those second chances, those hack and whack and chop (opportunities) and somehow will the puck into the back of the net.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, only 43 per cent of Winnipeg’s high-danger shot attempts this series have hit the net — that’s the lowest of any team in Round 2. 

“You look at every game around the league for the most part, there’s the odd nice goal, but most of them are pretty greasy goals,” Jets defenceman Luke Schenn told reporters.

Back To The Basics

As of Thursday morning, Winnipeg is rolling out the same four forward lines they’ve run all year.

Mind you, Arniel had these lines skating together ahead of Game 4 before changing things up right before puck drop. 

He placed Alex Iafallo back on the top line – where he filled in admirably during Gabriel Vilardi’s absence — slotted Nino Niederreiter alongside Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti, and placed Nikolaj Ehlers alongside Adam Lowry. 

History would suggest that Arniel will keep that top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Vilardi intact. 

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