DALLAS – The Winnipeg Jets aim for a winning record on their four-game road trip when they take on the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
So far, the Jets (22-25-27) have guaranteed at least a split on the trip, with victories in New Jersey and Florida leading up to tonight’s clash with Dallas. Their only loss came in Tampa Bay, but they rebounded from that loss well and bounced back with a win over the Panthers.
“I thought we played one hell of a hockey game,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel after the come-from-behind 2-1 win in Florida. “We stayed in it, kind of like I said the other day: nose to nose with those guys and that is what you have to do.”
The phrase ‘staying in it’ is certainly applicable for the Jets at this point of the season. Slowly, but surely, they’ve accomplished small parts of their goal to get back into contention for the wildcard in the Western Conference.
They couldn’t look at it as trying to jump over six teams. Instead, they focused on just getting by the next team in front of them. Winnipeg’s 5-3-2 record in their last 10 has pushed them by a few teams in the standings (St. Louis, Calgary, and Chicago) but there is still work to do.
Nine points separate the Jets and the wildcard spot currently held by the Los Angeles Kings. All the Jets can do is focus on Dallas – who has a pair of one-goal wins over Winnipeg this season – and keep playing the type of game that has given them success of late.
“We have a bit of a different animal tonight, but we’re familiar with them,” said Kyle Connor, who has three goals and five points against the Stars this season. “They play a very mature game in the sense that they do the details very well, so we have to be on top of that as a group ourselves. That game against Florida, I think what really turned for us in the second is we took the fight to them in the sense that we didn’t make it easy for them.”
Cole Perfetti’s fifth of the season tied the game in Florida and helped Winnipeg to their second win this season when trailing after 40 minutes.
“It’s hopefully huge for momentum,” Perfetti said of the win. “I think the guys are feeling really good right now, and obviously we’re going into Dallas, who’s another tough building and division rivals, so it’s going to be a good test for us.”
Winnipeg stayed off the ice on Sunday but did hold a morning skate on Monday. The group didn’t do full line rushes, so warm-up will be the best indication of what line-up the Jets plan to go with – including if Perfetti stays with the top power play unit with Connor, Mark Scheifele, Gabriel Vilardi, and Josh Morrissey.
That was a bit of a tweak from the loss to Tampa Bay, and while Winnipeg came up empty on the man-advantage against Florida, they produced some great chances – including Perfetti hitting a post.
“What stood out for me was our five-on-five mindset that we talk about, loose pucks, and that’s something we can control,” said Connor. “We can talk about the different plays and the secondary of what comes from that once you have the puck more in possession. But I liked our jump, I like our compete, we had a lot of chances and it was the type of team – there aren’t too many kills like that – in a sense of the chances you’re going to get. It could be one or two glorious ones where they’re out of position because they’re over pressuring. (Perfetti) had one, his backhand all alone in the slot, there are a couple that stand out for me. Just that overall mindset of being hungry, trying to get pucks back, and supporting each other was huge for us.”
As for the Stars, they earned their fourth straight win with a 3-2 triumph in Utah on Saturday night. Two power play goals and an even strength marker in the opening period gave the Stars a lead that the Mammoth couldn’t recover from.
Heading into action on Monday, the Stars are third in the Central Division with a 32-14-9 record. Their power play has been a big weapon this season, sitting at second in the NHL at 30 percent. Wyatt Johnston scored his league-leading 18th power play goal of the season against Utah and is tied for fourth in the NHL with 29 power play points (equal to his teammate in Mikko Rantanen).
“Their power play is on fire, absolutely on fire. One ,if we’re out there (penalty killing), we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing the right things. Second, we’ve got to stay out of the box. That would go a long way,” said Arniel.
“They’re a straight line (team). They attack, they’re quick off the breakouts, they get numbers up the ice and they defend real strong. We’ve seen these guys twice, we know what we need to do against them.”
Tonight’s game is the second to last for both teams before the Olympic break. The Jets will host Montreal on Wednesday and the Stars will welcome the Blues that same night.
Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm CT.
