WINNIPEG – The Jets were looking to continue with the same game they finished with before the All-Star Break as they beat up on the Arizona Coyotes, and had all hands on deck Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars who are battling for first overall in the Western Conference.
The Jets controlled most of the play early on but as the story goes this season they couldn’t bury their chances when they had them. After going up 1-0 and 2-1 they allowed Dallas to get back into the game and it proved costly as they lost for a third time this season to the Stars.
Tyler Seguin scored twice in win over Jets – Photo by Jack Lima
“It’s huge,” Ruff said. “Coming out of the break, you don’t know what to expect. We got a pretty good effort out of our guys.”
Dallas heads out with a 5-3 win and sits one point out of first in the Central.
“We had been struggling on the road before the [All-Star] break (0-4-2 on the road in January), so it’s a good way to start after the break,” Dallas defenseman John Klingberg said.
Connor Hellebuyck made his 11th straight start in goal for Winnipeg he gave up four goals on 26 shots and falls to 12-10-1 on the season. The crease will be getting crowded soon as Ondrej Pavelec is almost ready to be cleared and come off the injured list.
Antti Niemi was a surprise starter for Dallas as Kari Lehtonen has had the Jets number in recent games; Niemi made 21 saves and had some help from his posts as the Jets came inches away from tying the game when Tyler Myers rang one off the iron with under a minute to go. Niemi made a couple of breakaway stops off Bryan Little and Chris Thorburn to preserve the win.
“It was one of those [games] that were there for us, but we let it slip away,” the Jets Dustin Byfuglien said. “We didn’t get any points. We don’t have any time to waste. We need the points.”
With the break, the Jets were able to get all injured forwards back in the lineup Tuesday and earlier in the day they sent Matt Halischuk back to the AHL with the Manitoba Moose. The Jets still have bottom six problems as they only used their fourth line for just under six minutes of ice.
Winnipeg got goals from Andrew Ladd his 11th, Adam Lowry his fourth, and Dustin Byfuglien notched his 15th of the season.
Dallas was led by Tyler Seguin who scored a pair of power play goals his 26th and 27th of the year. John Klingberg got his seventh scoring on a 3-on-0 rush, Vern Fiddler his seventh and Antoine Roussel his 8th into an empty net.
“Mentally, I put January behind me during my time in Nashville (for the All-Star Game),” Seguin said. “Personally, I thought it was one of my worst months as a pro player, and our team wasn’t playing well either. I think we all came out of this break a little refreshed and came back to basics.”
The Jets see themselves sitting nine points out of the playoffs and have Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien both becoming free agents with no deals close could see themselves as sellers as the trade deadline approaches. This team has had bad luck all season with not being able to get bounces or score timely goals and also has given up the most empty-net goals. Unless they go on a huge run things will be very interesting in the next couple weeks in Winnipeg.
“There’s not an easy mark there,” Maurice said. “No, I don’t think it’s in their head. I don’t think any of the three games that we’ve played with Dallas have been one-sided at all. This is the first game we’ve got outshot by them. I don’t feel that way going into the game.”
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