The Winnipeg Jets fell 3-1 to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center Tuesday to fall behind 3-1 in the second-round series.
Here, we’ll dive into four takeaways from the contest.
1: Jets’ Road Woes Continued Despite Carrying Play
The Jets came into Game 4 winless in four road games this postseason (and were outscored 22-7 in those games.) Dating back to the 2023 postseason, they’d lost eight straight on the road.
Make it five and nine.
“Without going too deep, the biggest thing a head coach once told me, and I’ve told our group, is there isn’t a home or a road way to play. There’s only a right way,” head coach Scott Arniel said Monday, the day after his team game up three third-period goals in a 5-2 loss. “We have a certain style that we’re accustomed to playing and how we play and we’ve been doing it all year long. We’ve got to get back to being that road team that we were through 82 games. The playoffs haven’t been good,” he continued.
The Jets played a pretty strong game overall — much closer to that style Arniel spoke about — by outshooting the Stars 32-24, generating 72 shot attempts to the Stars’ 45, and generating 12 high-danger chances to the Stars’ eight.
It being their best road effort of the postseason will be cold comfort for a team that just can’t seem find a way to capture a victory away from Canada Life Centre. Mikael Granlund’s hat trick sunk them, and they are now one loss away from their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season ending prematurely.
2: Oettinger Outplayed Hellebuyck… Again
In the third period, Stars’ fans began chanting “Otter’s better!” in reference to goaltender Jake Oettinger.
They were right.
The netminder did his best impression of a brick wall, making a number of 10-bell saves when the game was tied 1-1 in the second and when his team was leading in the third. Those saves — especially a massive pad stop on Kyle Connor just moments before Granlund’s second goal broke the late-second deadlock and another on Connor’s shorthanded breakaway in the third — were the difference.
“If we can’t find more than one goal, we’re not going to win hockey games, especially against this hockey team,” Arniel said postgame. “We’ve got to get more than one goal off of those (shot attempts). Maybe that’s get driving harder than that. Finding those rebounds, screening, whatever it is. We’ve done it, we’ve done it in the past, and we’ve got to find a way to do it the next game.”
It was the second-straight game, and third game of four, that Oettinger outplayed his counterpart Connor Hellebuyck. Oettinger now owns a 2.55 goals against average (GAA) and .917 save percentage (SV%) in the postseason and has only given up eight goals in the series.
Hellebuyck wasn’t terrible in Game 4, but allowed another early weak one from long range which meant his team had to chase. There was some hope the Vezina and Hart Trophy nominee — who entered the contest with a 3.51 goals against average, .848 save percentage, and negative 11.6 goals saved above expected in 10 postseason starts — had finally found his form after his 21-save Game 2 shutout.
However, he fell right back into his prolonged playoff slump in Game 3 by allowing five goals on 26 shots (including a kicked-in goal that was allowed to stand because the refereeing crew and NHL Situation Room deemed he had essentially scored on his own net.)
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Quite simply, goaltending has been one of the Stars’ biggest x-factors in the series and it’s been compounded with Hellebuyck’s subpar play.
3: Jets Lost the Special-Teams Battle… Again
The Jets continued to find nothing but futility on the power play, going zero for three and wasting chances to go ahead 2-1 shortly after Nikolaj Ehlers tied the game early in the second and to cut the lead to 3-2 late in the third. The Jets posted a league-best 28.90 per cent efficiency in the regular season and powered themselves to a number of victories because of their man-advantage prowess but are now one for 16 in the series and six for 28 in the postseason for a 15.8 per cent efficiency.
That’s by far the worst of the eight teams still competing and they have no legitimate excuse for not being better as Ehlers, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi — who all missed time with injury this postseason — have all been back in their regular top-unit roles since Game 2.
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The Jets allowed two further power-play goals in Game 4: Granlund’s opening salvo and the one that completed his hat trick in the third. The Stars now have four man-advantage markers in the series and boast a 32.4 per cent efficiency on the postseason (11 for 34.)
4: Jets Can’t Stop Stars’ Individual Heroics Or Find Any of Their Own
Granlund’s hat trick was the second one the Jets gave up in the series after Mikko Rantanen’s Game 1 natural hat trick. It was also the second time in the series one player produced all the offense against them.
Rantanen didn’t score in Game 4 but added another assist. He has roasted the Jets with four goal and three assists for seven points in the series sand now has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 11 playoff games.
The Jets have just not gotten that type of “put-the-team-on-your-back” style performance from their top players this round. Connor leads the team with a modest-by-comparison 14 points and Ehlers and Nino Niederreiter are the only two with multiple goals this series (three and two, respectively.) As a result, they are down 3-1 and in have only a 9.1 per cent chance of advancing.
Game 5 takes place Thursday, May 15 at Canada Life Centre with puck drop slated 8:30 CT. The Jets will try to stave off elimination for the second time, while the Stars will look to punch their ticket to a third-straight Western Conference Final.