That old saying summed it nicely: “We just didn’t bury our chances.”
The breakaways. The posts. The glorious looks on the goal line. The Winnipeg Jets fired plenty at Antti Niemi, but the Stars goalie spoiled the fun. Down 4-3 late in the third period, Tyler Myers had the best chance of all, but his wrister from the high slot grazed iron, an inch too high on the yawning target. Seconds later, Antoine Roussel scored into the empty net, sealing a 5-3 win. It was that kind of night.
The Jets were good in both the first and third periods, but a calm in the second proved costly, as the Stars scored twice in the final five minutes, turning a one-goal deficit into a 3-2 lead. Drew Stafford got the Jets on the board first with a power-play goal at 14:16. With his back to the half wall, No. 12 took a feed from the D and fired a blast over the shoulder of Niemi. The goal was later credited to Andrew Ladd, who got a piece of it in front. The power play has now struck in each of the past three games, a feat of consistency that hadn’t previously been achieved in 49 prior contests. The Jets finished the night 1-for-3 with the man advantage.
The Stars levelled the score with a power-play goal of their own just 51 seconds into the middle frame. Tyler Seguin, who came into the night without a point in nine of his past 11 games, fired a shot similar to Stafford’s rattling it off the back bar behind Connor Hellebuyck.
The Jets went back in front at 4:41 as the indomitable Adam Lowry, back from injury, jammed home a loose puck on his third try in the blue paint. The goal came on the heels of a questionable boarding penalty to Dustin Byfuglien, which Blake Wheeler, Stafford and the rest easily took care of. Missed opportunities then turned the tables. After Little and Andrew Copp both failed to score on breakaways just minutes apart, the Stars took advantage with two in 2:11.
The Stars tied it up as a breakaway-turned-3-on-0 ended up in the back of the net with 5:19 to play in the period. John Klingberg was the last to make contact, finishing off a pass from fellow defenceman Jason Demers with the roof-job over Hellebuyck’s left arm. Vern Fiddler then gave Dallas lead with a shot from the far circle, squeezing it under the blocker.
Seguin put this one to bed with another PPG early in the third, rifling a shot far side for his 27th of the campaign. Byfuglien pulled the Jets within one with 9:46 to play, gunning a slapper off the post and in for his fourth goal in the past three games. But it wasn’t enough.
LATE HITS: Byfuglien took the time post-game to clarify a comment he made at the All-Star Game about potentially re-signing in Winnipeg. The defenceman is set to become an unrestricted free agent if he is not signed before then: “You never want to leave home,” he said. “I’ve been here a long time, my family’s here, I have two kids here. It’s somewhere you don’t want to leave.”
Quotes
Paul Maurice: “There’s not an easy mark there. I don’t think it’s in our heads at all. I don’t think any of the games we’ve played with Dallas have been one-sided at all. This is the first game we got out-shot by them. It’s a 60-minute game. They’re a good enough team that if you give them 10 or 20 minutes of room, they’ll make you bleed for it and we did.”Drew Stafford: "There’s not an easy answer to that. They were just a little harder on the puck than us, won a few more battles. Obviously we had some turnovers in our end, some sloppy play, some sloppy reads... you can’t be giving up 2-on-0s and 3-on-0s. We had some breakaways ourselves that we didn’t capitalize on and their goalie played well. But you get into a track meet with a team like that with a great transition that paid off for them. There’s no easy answer for that (lull). They were just harder on the puck than we were. They won more battles. There were a couple turnovers on our end, some sloppy play, some sloppy reads. You can’t be giving up 2-on-0’s, 3-on-0’s. … You get into a track meet with them, they have such a great transition and it paid off for them.”
Tyler Myers: "That one... I would have liked to have seen that one go in. I just put it a bit too high. We definitely had our chances. It seemed like we were trading breakaways in the second period. We’d like to clean that part of our game up for sure. Our first period was good, I thought they started to out-work us in the second and then the third... it was just two inches away from tying it up. It just didn’t happen. Once I saw (Bryan Little) wasn’t going to shoot it, I just tried to find some open space in the slot. He made a real good pass to me and I put it on the side I wanted to, but I put it too high.”
Adam Lowry: “Matty made a nice play getting to the net and I just tried to get to the net and find the rebound.”
Winnipeg Local Press
This is what they do, these 2015-16 Winnipeg Jets: they flash just enough to fuel hope and then, inevitably, snuff it out in spectacular fashion. That’s a succinct take on Game 50 of their season, a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars Tuesday night at MTS Centre, and, in effect, their entire campaign. And as entertaining as this one occasionally was, it was again an all-over-the-map effort by the Jets that featured some pretty goals, some whiffed chances and enough defensive lapses to have Paul Maurice spitting rust for the next few days. The result, a week removed from a win over Phoenix that seemed to breathe some life back into the longshot push-to-the-playoffs notion, drops the Jets to 22-25-3 and still nine points out of a playoff spot, but with the calendar shrinking. The Jets wrap up their stretch of nine of 10 at home Friday against Carolina, but are just 2-6 in downtown Winnipeg in a stand that was to define their season. Just as gruesome is the Jets record against their own Central Division foes: now 6-13-1.A GOOD START
The Jets opened the scoring for just the 21st time in 50 games and, get this, the goal came courtesy the reborn power-play. With Andrew Ladd playing the role of Dustin Byfuglien and clogging the front of the net, Drew Stafford found room behind Antti Niemi for his 15th goal of the season.The Jets now have power-play goals in three straight games since the overhaul that features Byfuglien, or Ladd, in front of the opposition net and Nikolaj Ehlers working the point on the first unit with Tyler Myers. Countering that is the still-struggling penalty-kill unit. The game-winner came with the Stars on the power-play and also got another as time expired on a Byfuglien minor. Winnipeg has now given up at least one power-play goal in 33 games this year.
Countering that is the still-struggling penalty-kill unit. The game-winner came with the Stars on the power-play and also got another as time expired on a Byfuglien minor. Winnipeg has now given up at least one power-play goal in 33 games this year.
A LAME MIDDLE
As solid as the opening 20 minutes was for the Jets, their second period was horrific. It wasn’t just that the home side gave up three goals, it was the manner in which the Jets served up one glorious opportunity after another to the Stars, a club that leads the National Hockey League in scoring and, this just in, has a teeny-tiny bit of finish around the net. Case in point, a stretch late in the second saw the Jets first surrender a 2-on-0, stopped by Connor Hellebuyck, followed by a 3-on-0 after a bad Jacob Trouba pinch that resulted in Vernon Fiddler tapping home an Ales Hemsky feed on the Jets’ netminder’s doorstep.How does a period like that happen?
A FRUSTRATING THIRD
The Jets fell behind 4-2 less than three minutes into the third, rallied on Byfuglien’s 15th and then fired out some curses late when Tyler Myers rang one off the post with 45 seconds left and Hellebuyck pulled before Antoine Roussel sealed the deal with the net empty.
A second-period defensive lapse cost the Winnipeg Jets two critical points in what was otherwise a pretty good effort against the Dallas Stars. The Stars, struggling of late and ripe for the picking, took advantage of a leaky Winnipeg defence to bang home two goals in just over two minutes, erasing a 2-1 Jets lead on their way to a 5-3 win. If you're scoring at home, and this is relatively easy, that ends the home team's win streak at one, which is its second-longest win streak of the season. And if that doesn't say it all about this all-but-lost fifth season in the NHL, I don't know what does. A six-game homestand that was supposed to vault the Jets back into the playoff race now stands at one win in five.
Next up: Carolina, followed by eight of 10 on the road.
That takes us to the NHL trade deadline, when the sobering present meets the uncertain future.
THE GAME-CHANGER
This game turned midway through the second period, when the Jets, up 2-1 and carrying the play, gave up a bizarre 2 1/2-on-none: Stars defencemen Jason Demers and John Klingberg, along with forward Cody Eakin, without a stick, in alone on Connor Hellebuyck, on a Winnipeg power play, no less. Klingberg scored and the Jets began leaking like a sieve, giving up another just over two minutes later and falling behind by two early in the third.
CLEAN HIT, VICIOUS RESULT
Dustin Byfuglien delivered another one of those brain-rattling hits that make you wince, catching Colton Sceviour looking back for a pass along the boards at centre ice. While the hit looked technically clean, Byfuglien's shoulder made contact with Sceviour's upper body, the result was vicious, the Stars centre's head spun hard into the boards. Byfuglien was called for boarding, the second call against him fans didn't like, are there any they do? The first, a borderline slash that had No. 33 doing a mock-clap at the ref from the penalty box.
I'm pretty sure that type of thing doesn't get you any favours with the striped-shirts.
As intriguing as that new line of Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler is, you wonder if the Jets can stick with it for long. Ehlers and Wheeler are both natural right wingers, leaving Ehlers on his off wing. The other issue is it puts all of the Jets' fastest eggs in one basket.
“You'd like to have all your wingers comfortable on both sides of the ice,” head coach Paul Maurice said before Tuesday's game. “He clearly looked comfortable there. An awful lot of speed maybe all on one line, so we'll maybe have to look at that.”
Then again, the line's success in its debut last week meant Maurice couldn't break it up for last night's tilt.
“Why would you?” he agreed.
DOING THE JIVE
Wheeler had an interesting description of the threesome before the Dallas game.
“In the offensive zone we all are on similar wavelengths,” he said. “We jived off each other pretty well.”
The line showed more of its chemistry against the Stars, Wheeler setting up Scheifele for a first-period breakaway that saw No. 55 hit the cross-bar.
Midway through the third they hit paydirt when Ehlers took Scheifele's pass at the right point and fed Byfuglien for his 15th goal of the season. And with the minutes winding down in the third, still down a goal, Wheeler sent Scheifele in for what looked like the tying goal only to watch Stars goalie Antti Niemi do the splits to make the toe save at the post.
BAD TIMING
While most Jets welcomed the all-star break, Ehlers probably wouldn't have minded playing some games over the last week. He was coming off a hat trick against Phoenix, after all.
“Maybe a little,” the Dane agreed.
At least he got to soak up his first career three-goal night a little longer than most. I definitely did the first couple of days. A lot of people were messaging me and congratulating me. It was pretty cool... it's going to be a great memory for sure.”
ALL-STAR, ON SECOND THOUGHT
After originally being overlooked, Wheeler was given the chance to attend the all-star festivities as a replacement for Jonathan Toews, but declined so he could take a holiday with his family.
“It was nice that they thought of me. I would have liked to be a part of it, but I wasn't going to rip my family out of Florida, it would have been a cluster to make that work. It was bad timing. I considered it. But... two small kids and my wife, we needed a break.”
As far as Wheeler is concerned, there aren't enough breaks in the NHL schedule.
“I'd rather have a couple more breaks built into the year at some point, 82 hockey games is tough.”
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