The Dallas Stars held on to beat the Winnipeg Jets in an early playoff rematch by a score of 5-4. Both teams combined for seven goals in the third period in what was a wild night from start to finish.
Mikko Rantanen, Nils Lundkvist, Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, and Wyatt Johnston scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger made 21 saves on 25 shots.
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The newly extended Kyle Connor scored three goals, while Morgan Barron scored the other for the Jets. Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves on 37 shots.
Game Recap
The Stars got on the board early in the first period, as Rantanen cleaned up a loose puck in front of the net at 3:15.
Connor evened the game at 1-1 a little over three minutes later after juggling a pass from Mark Scheifele and sniping the puck under the left arm of Oettinger.
The Stars restored the one-goal lead at 15:24 on a Lundkvist shot from the slot that went off the post and in, thanks to a beautiful pass from Rantanen from the bottom of the left face-off circle.
After a scoreless second, Robertson gave the Stars a 3-1 lead with a power-play goal at 1:01 of the third. Rantanen continued his productive night with a pass from the right corner that found Robertson all alone in front of Hellebuyck, who made the first save off his right pad, but couldn’t stop the rebound.
34 seconds later, Duchene had a nifty spin-o-rama in the neutral zone and found Seguin for a back-post tap-in to make it 4-1.
Johnston continued the onslaught with a wrist shot from the slot that beat Hellebuyck glove side.
With the Stars on the power play, the Jets scored two shorthanded goals to cut the lead to 5-3 with less than eight minutes left. Barron started it off by breaking up a pass, going coast-to-coast and beating Oettinger with a backhand shot past the left pad. Next, Connor scored his second of the night after Scheifele banked a pass off the boards from the defensive zone that sent Connor in alone. After Oettinger stopped the first attempt, Connor collected the rebound and put the puck into a wide-open net.
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The Jets got one step closer at 16:57 as Connor completed the hat trick with a shot in the slot.
The Stars killed off a penalty in the dying minutes to hold on for the 5-4 win.
The Stars outshot the Jets 37-25, and went 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Jets went 0-for-4 on the man advantage.
Up Next
Both teams are back in action on Saturday as the Jets host the Los Angeles Kings, while the Stars will be in Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche.
