Stars Lose To Jets

By Stephen Hunt, The Sports Xchange

DALLAS — The Winnipeg Jets have been waiting all season for their first three-game winning streak. And thanks to two goals from Mark Scheifele and Ondrej Pavelec making 38 saves, the Jets edged the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Thursday night at American Airlines Center.
“Might be the best performance I’ve ever seen by a goaltender while I’ve been behind the bench. He was pretty darn good tonight,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said of Pavelec’s performance.
Winnipeg (25-25-4) also got a goal and an assist from Nikolaj Ehlers, a goal from Bryan Little and two assists from Patrik Laine.
Dallas (21-21-10) got goals from John Klingberg, who also had an assist, Jamie Benn, who added two assists, and Patrick Eaves. Kari Lehtonen stopped 25 shots for the Stars before leaving the ice with 1:50 remaining.
“At the end of the night, we had our chances,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “We had plenty of good chances to make a difference. I like the work that went into it (the game). Did we make some mistakes? We made some mistakes.”
Winnipeg struck first when Little scored his 14th goal of the season on wrist shot from the right circle 6:50 into the game.
Dallas evened the score with 8:05 remaining in the first period when Klingberg scored a power-play goal off a rebound of Benn’s shot.
Dallas took a 2-1 first lead when Benn scored off a rebound with 6:01 remaining in the first period after Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom was unable to clear the puck.
Winnipeg tied it when Scheifele one-timed a Blake Wheeler pass off the rush from the left circle 53 seconds before the first intermission.
“Yeah, our line was going,” Scheifele said. “We were getting pucks deep. We were getting a lot of shots through and creating a lot of second chances. It’s definitely big to get that win.”
The Jets appeared to regain the lead when Scheifele scored from the slot 4:36 into the second period during a power play. Ruff used his coach’s challenge, asserting that Wheeler was offside, and the goal was overturned.
Benn nearly scored on a breakaway with Dallas down to three skaters 5:33 into the second, but Pavelec sealed off the far post to deny Benn.
“It happened so quick. It was probably first breakaway of my career five-on-three, so I didn’t expect that, but I was just waiting for his move,” Pavelec said.
“I think we were both patient and waiting for what the other guy was gonna do. It’s a huge thing in this game to be patient. I tried to wait, wait and make the save.”
Twenty-three seconds later, Scheifele delivered his second goal of the game and this one, during a five-on-three power play, counted. He one-timed a backhand pass from Mathieu Perreault past Lehtonen for his 25th goal of the season.
“We always seem to put ourselves in a tough situation, but I didn’t think Roussel’s was a penalty,” Benn said. “To make it five-on-three was a tough call in my mind.”
Ehlers gave Winnipeg its first two-goal lead at 4-2 when he scored into an open net with 7:09 remaining in the second period.
Eaves made it a one-goal game with his 19th goal of the season off a rebound with 2:02 remaining in the second period.
With 4:57 remaining in regulation, Benn found the left goalpost with a wrist shot from the slot with Dallas looking to tie the score.
Dallas’ Jason Spezza headed to the locker room 7:01 into the third period after taking a hard hit from Winnipeg’s Adam Lowry.
“I don’t really have an update,” Ruff said of Spezza. “He’s going to miss some time, and it’s probably more than days.”
The Stars outshot the Jets 14-3 in the third period but even with the extra attacker late, Dallas failed to find the equalizer. Winnipeg blocked four Dallas shots in the final 45 seconds, giving the Jets 29 for the game.
“Yeah, finally we can stop talking about that (not winning three straight),” Scheifele said. “We had a great game tonight and now we got Colorado (Saturday), we have a chance to make it a pretty good road trip.”