WINNIPEG MB – One year ago today the Winnipeg Jets had an identical record and were playing the Dallas Stars on Valentines Day. Although there is definitely no love lost between these two Central Division rivals and with both teams looking to make some sort of last ditch effort at a playoff chase tonight was a big one.
Whenever these two get together it’s hard nosed hockey that turns into a hard hitting lots of scoring chances .
Tuesday’s goaltending match up featured Connor Hellebuyck for the Jets against Antti Niemi for the Dallas Stars.
Dallas came out guns a blazing early as they had the better chances and were looking to hand the Jets a fifth straight defeat and a sixth home ice loss in a row.
With five minutes left in the first Andrew Copp made a beauty cross crease pass on a 2 on 1 with Patrik Laine who made no mistake scoring his 24th.
“It’s always nice to score,” Laine said. “It was a huge game for me and my linemates and the whole team. These four last games haven’t been that good, so it was just nice to have a game like this.”
Joel Armia scored his fifth to put the Jets up 2-0 early in the second before the stars mounted there comeback.
Jamie Benn scored his 19th and Tyler Seguin scored his 21st on the power play to square things at 2-2.
Hellebuyck stood tall in the crease to keep things even after forty minutes.
With just over five minutes left off a face off win by Mark Scheifele the Finish Flash 2.0 Laineshowed off his quick release and laser wrist shot as he scored the go ahead goal and eventual winner for his 25th of the season.
“I thought we had crossbars, posts … there’s nothing that really got away from us except the fact that the puck didn’t go in the net,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “We gave up … the only chance they got in the first period was the one that went in. We had about 10 minutes in the second that we were on our heels, but I thought we got out of that and tied the game up. A couple plays to start the third, but after that I thought we had the puck most of the night.”-
After some pressure from the Stars Blake Wheeler found the empty net for his 17th and Laine added his third of the game and 26th of the season and also his 3rd hat trick of the year as well to make it 5-2 Winnipeg.
“It’s two teams fighting for their [playoff] lives,” Wheeler said. “These guys were a playoff team last year and have a really talented squad over there. It’s a really good hockey team. You could feel they were pushing for the same thing we were pushing for. It made it a playoff feel game, a 2-2 game going into the third with those implications, there was a lot of intensity, a lot of chances. It’s fun hockey.”
WATCH: All Stars vs. Jets highlights
Hellebuyck finished with 34 saves to get the win his 18th of the year.
Laine notched his 2nd hat trick against the Stars and Scheifele had 3 assists on the night.
The Jets snapped a four game skid and a five game skid at home and will now head out on a very tough Eastern swing starting Thursday night against the Penguins.
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