Scheifele Scores Twice, Jets Play Well, But Fall 4-3 to Dallas

JETS OUTSHOOT anD OUTHIT DALLAS BUT DON'T OUTSCORE THEM

The Winnipeg Jets outplayed the NHL’s second-best team on Tuesday night.

They outshot the Dallas Stars, outhit the Dallas Stars and were clearly the better team. Trouble is, they didn’t outscore the Dallas Stars.

Jason Roberston scored what turned out to be the winning goal midway through the third period on Tuesday and despite a brilliant two-goal performance from Mark Scheifele, the Jets fell 4-3 to a team they just can’t seem to find a way to beat.

With the loss, the Jets fell to 14-14-1 – 2-7-1 since MVP and Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck left the team to undergo arthroscopic surgery on a chronically injured knee.

The Jets have also lost two in a row and are watching the wild card spots in the West fade with every defeat.

The Stars opened the scoring when Esa Lindell beat Eric Comrie 44 seconds into the game on their very first shot. After that, the Jets dominated the period, outshooting Dallas 11-6 and completely controlling all three zones.

However, the Jets missed a number of scoring chances and Casey DeSmith was rock-solid in the Stars’ net.

In the second period, the Stars quickly made it 2-0 as Roope Hintz finished off a three-way passing play right in front of Comrie. It was the first shot of the second period and came at 1:16.

Hintz makes it 2-0 Dallas (Photo by Scott Stroh)

At 2:34, the Stars made it 3-0 when Alexander Petrovic ripped a shot from 40-feet out that eluded six players in front and Comrie.

It looked like a Stars rout on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t that way on the ice. The Jets were all over Dallas, giving them very few scoring chances, but they had three goals on their first eight shots and that was the difference.

The Jets finally got on the board when Mark Scheifele stole the puck in front of the Stars net, got it to Kyle Connor, who fed it back to Scheifele who buried it behind DeSmith. It was Scheifele’s 15th goal of the year and Connor’s 21st assist.

Dallas led 3-2 after two periods, but they were just holding on. Winnipeg outshot the Stars 14-8 in the second period -- 25-14 after 40 minutes. The Jets had also outhit Dallas 26-6 and were again, dominating play.

"I think we liked a lot of our game tonight," Logan Stanley said. "I thought that we were the better team, and maybe deserved a little better, but that's kind of the funk we're in right now. We keep battling through it, and, you know, that's a good start and a good kind of game plan for us going forward, we want to play like that. I thought we did a lot of good things.

However, just as the Jets were getting back in the game, Dallas got its fourth power play of the night and made good use of it. Jason Robertson scored his 19th of the year at 4:46 of the third period and suddenly the Jets were down 4-2.

Big Logan Stanley scores his fourth of the year (Photo by Scott Stroh)

After that the Jets missed two glorious opportunities to score and kept pressing but the Stars picked up another power play at 11:01 and that sealed Winnipeg’s fate.

The Jets fought off the penalty and pressured the Stars, but they just didn’t have the offensive fire-power to even the game. Despite getting one more power play, the Jets had nothing left in the tank.

It was an incredible night in terms of ice-time for the Jets. Scheifele got 25 minutes and 47 seconds. Kyle Connor got 25:31. Only one defenceman – Josh Morrissey got more (26:33). Coach Scott Arniel did everything he could to keep Connor and Scheifele on the ice. They way things have gone this season, they are the only players (along with Gabriel Vilardi, who was moved onto a line with Perfetti and Jonathan Toews) who give any indication they can score.

In the end, the Jets outshot Dallas 33-19 and outhit them 32-8, but with little secondary scoring and no Hellebuyck, they just don’t have the horses.