One team took advantage of its limited chances. One team did not.
And that, essentially, was the difference on Tuesday night as the Dallas Stars downed the Winnipeg Jets 2-0 at Canada Life Centre.
There otherwise wasn’t much separation, nor time and space, between a pair of Central Division rivals who entered play tied in the standings. Tight checking, clogged shooting lanes and plenty of neutral zone play was the name of the game. Not exactly edge-of-your-seat stuff, that’s for sure
In the end, timely goals from veterans Joe Pavelski and Tyler Seguin, a terrific goaltending performance from Jake Oettinger (27 save shutout) and a putrid Winnipeg power play — and that’s being kind — told the story..
“Oettinger made a lot of big saves. They blocked a lot of big shots. I thought we played pretty solid,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele. “We gotta stick to the process. Not everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows. There’s going to be stretches, games where you think you should have had a better result. Just gotta keep trucking.”
Winnipeg falls to 12-7-2, losing two straight games in regulation for the first time since mid-October. Dallas improves to 13-5-2.
Let’s delve further into this one:
1) GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY NO. 1 — Winnipeg had a glorious chance to open the scoring midway through the second period as Nils Lundkvist (holding Morgan Barron) and Radek Faksa (hooking Scheifele) took penalties just 52 seconds apart. That left the Jets with 68 seconds of five-on-three.
Oettinger made a handful of high-quality stops, none greater than a stone cold robbery job on Scheifele. That’s pretty much the way it’s been going for Winnipeg with the man advantage this year, as their power play began the night clicking at just 19.4 per cent, good for 20th overall in the NHL.
“We probably needed some more one-timers out there,” was Scheifele’s assessment. “That’s something we gotta figure out. We gotta score there.”
You had a feeling a missed opportunity might come back to bite them.
2) CHOMP, CHOMP — Sure enough, the visitors rode the momentum of a successful double kill and lit the lamp just 37 seconds after Faksa had exited the box.
Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger makes a save as Winnipeg Jets' Vladislav Namestnikov looks for the rebound during the second period.
Pavelski, who appears to be aging in reverse, re-directed a Roope Hintz pass right in front of Connor Hellebuyck for his team-leading 10th goal (and 20th point) of the season.
Paveslki’s stick appeared to graze Hellebuyck’s mask just seconds earlier, and the Jets clearly thought there was enough there to use a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference.
No dice, according to the NHL control room in Toronto, which upheld the goal. It meant an automatic delay-of-game penalty for the Jets, which they managed to kill.
3) GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY NO. 2 — Hard to believe, but the Jets got another 5-on-3 early in the third period when Ryan Suter (interference against Scheifele) and Faksa (tripping against Nino Niederreiter) were sent to the sin bin 1:16 apart. With 44 crucial seconds staring them in the face, Winnipeg once again failed to capitlize, looking stagnant.
“Story of the night,” said coach Rick Bowness. “It’s rare to get one. To get two like we did in a low-event, hard-checking game. There wasn’t a lot of room out there for either team, there wasn’t a lot of offense being generated. When you gets those 5-on-3s you have to capitalize, and it cost us the game.”
Sure, the Jets controlled play for much of the final frame, but a seasoned Stars team was happy to sit back and nurse the lead. And with just over three minutes remaining, Matt Duchene knocked Neal Pionk off the puck as he attempted a shot, then quickly fed it to Mason Marchment for a two-on-one rush. Marchment’s pass eluded a sliding Nate Schmidt and was buried by Seguin, essentially sticking a fork in the Jets.
“We’ve got to make them pay when we have two opportunities five-on-three. We have to bear down there and get the momentum at least on our side,” said Niederreiter. “We need to get more traffic to the net and try to make him block shots and break them down that way. Shots create chances and create opportunities. We didn’t do enough of that.”
Josh Morrissey led the Jets with six shots on goal (and 11 shot attempts), while Scheifele, Pionk and Nikolaj Ehlers had three each.
4) BIG GAME, SMALL CROWD — Attendance continues to be a concerning issue for the Jets.
Dallas Stars' Miro Heiskanen and Winnipeg Jets' Morgan Barron battle for the puck after a face-off during the second period.
Despite a key Central Division clash, Tuesday crowd count was just 11,439. That’s one of the smallest of the season and below the average of the first 10 games, which was 11,897.
It will be interesting to see if Connor McDavid (Thursday night) and Connor Bedard (Saturday afternoon) help the cause as the four-game homestand contins.
5) AN EMOTIONAL NIGHT — The annual Hockey Fights Cancer game is always a special event, and Tuesday was no exception. Five children battling various forms of the disease were honoured prior to puck drop as ambassadors and their touching stories had many in tears.
“It’s a huge night. I think it’s a disease that affects pretty much everyone, whether they’re immediate family, a friend, or someone they know so any chance that we can lend support, raise money,” said captain Adam Lowry.
“Before the game the powerful messages and extremely courageous individuals, a lot like the hospital visits, it puts a lot of things into perspective for us. There’s things bigger than hockey, there’s people fighting for their lives. It’s a nice night to honour those people and lend our support and raise some money and come together as a community.”
Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff presented CancerCare Manitoba with a $125,000 cheque on behalf of the organization through various fundraising initiatives.
6) EXTRA, EXTRA — It was hoped Gabe Vilardi would return to the lineup on Tuesday, but the Jets opted to hold him out for at least one more game.
“He’s not ready, as simple as that. Skated with a new brace today, so we’ll give him (Tuesday) and (Wednesday),” said Bowness. “Everyone’s hopeful for Thursday, but we’ll decide that. He’ll be one of those game-time decisions that we love to talk about. Tuesday was exactly six weeks since Vilardi suffered a sprained MCL in just the third game of the year.
The healthy scratches against the Stars were defencemen Logan Stanley and Declan Chisholm.
Bowness broke out the line blender after the Jets fell behind in the second period. Ehlers was moved up to the top line with Scheifele and Kyle Connor, while Alex Iafallo took his spot on the second line with Vlad Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti.
Hellebuyck finished with 19 saves on 21 shots.
Winnipeg will practise on Wednesday afternoon to get ready for the Edmonton Oilers.
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Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
