In Winnipeg, the visiting Dallas Stars scored three times in the middle frame on Saturday to edge the Jets, 3-2.
Scott Wedgewood made 31 saves in the win.
“I liked how we started. I liked us the entire 60 minutes,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “I thought we were tight, we were smart with the puck, we were competitive, built the lead. That’s how you want to play on the road. Protect [Wedgewood] for the most part. In the third, they grabbed some momentum from the screened shot that they got in from the point, but other than a little bit here or there, it was a pretty tidy road win.”
Dallas moved to 9-3-1.
Thomas Harley gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 2:15 of the second.
In the second period, Wyatt Johnston staked the Stars to a 2-0 lead at 5:20 off a shorthanded goal.
“I see the net, a little 2-on-1 with [Jamie Benn] there, and I mean, I just saw a spot and decided to take the shot,” Johnston said. “Lucky enough, it hit the spot and went in.”
It was his first career shortie in the NHL.
“I think that’s what depth gives you,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said of Johnston’s performance. “We’ve become so used to Roope [Hintz]’s line dominating our offense every night that right now they’re a little cold, and we’re getting contributions from Wyatt and Matt Duchene sticking the puck in the night every night. … That’s the benefit of depth, having different contributors to help you win games.”
Dallas replied with a goal from Cole Perfetti at 8L28 of the second to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“Just feeling a little more comfortable,” Perfetti said. “As a line (with Vladislav Namestnikov and Nikolaj Ehlers), we’re creating a lot. I think we’ve been creating since we got together. When you create that much, I think points are going to come, chances are going to come, pucks are going to go in the net.”
Duchene scored at 11:57 of the second, off the the power play for a 3-1 lead headed to the third period.
Midway through the third, the Jets got one back on a marker from Brenden Dillon to cut the deficit back to one, but that was close as Winnipeg would get in the 3-2 loss.
“It’s nice to contribute, for sure,” Dillon said. “It was a big time in the third period there. I thought we were getting momentum. We played a great third period. It would have been 
nice to get another one and make it a really big goal.”
Winnipeg dropped to 7-5-2.
“You could tell right from the first five minutes of the game, [Dallas wasn’t] coming,” Jets associate coach Scott Arniel said. “Unless they had real good dump-ins, unless they had numbers, they weren’t really coming real hard on the forecheck. They were sitting above us kind of making us have to really work to get into their end of the rink. Those are the games you have to be smart and patient with.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves in the loss.
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