Jets’ comeback comes up short

It had everything you could want heading into a season-opener: The hometown hockey hero making his highly anticipated debut. Two new banners being raised to the rafters. Four shiny team trophies on display in the concourse. A raucous sold-out crowd and two opponents with a rich recent history.

Unfortunately for the Winnipeg Jets, the Dallas Stars spoiled their day yet again.

Last spring it came in Game 6 of their emotional second-round playoff series in the form of a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss down in Texas. Now, 145 days later, it was in Game 1 of the 2025-26 campaign — a wild 5-4 setback.

This was always going to be a tough first challenge for the Jets. They were facing a loaded Stars team widely regarded as one of the pre-season favourites to win the Stanley Cup — and doing so without three key members in shutdown centre Adam Lowry (hip), shutdown defenceman Dylan Samberg (wrist) and scoring winger Cole Perfetti (ankle).

What was a tight-checking 2-1 contest heading into the third period turned into a wide-open affair. Dallas scored three times in 2:22 to begin the final frame — only for the Jets to storm back with three of their own.

A final push couldn’t net the equalizer.

“Certainly you have to give Dallas credit but for 50 minutes we were not a very good hockey team,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.

“Our structure and detail in all three areas wasn’t very good. They’re too good of a hockey team to make those kind of mistakes.”

Winnipeg, which roared out to an 8-0-0 start last year and won 15 of their first 16 games, falls to 0-1-0. They’ll look to get int the win column when they host the Los Angeles Kings (1-1-0) on Saturday afternoon.

Let’s dig into this one further:

No opening-night jitters

Nobody can accuse Jets winger Kyle Connor of tip-toeing into a new hockey year. The sniper, fresh off signing the richest contract extension in Winnipeg history, scored his team’s first goal of the campaign after some nifty passing from linemates Mark Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi early in the first period.

It’s the eighth consecutive season-opener that Connor has lit the lamp. Turns out he was just getting warmed up.

Connor pulled his team to within two goals with just under nine minutes remaining in the game, taking a pass from Scheifele and converting his own rebound off a partial shorthanded breakaway.

Then, with just over three minutes left on the clock, he ripped a wicked wrister past Jake Oettinger — Scheifele once again was the set-up man — and the hats came raining down.

“It doesn’t take much for him to find holes. To get that shot off,” said Arniel.

“He’s just a goal scorer. That’s what he does. When he gets time, he gets space, he gets one-on-one with the goalie, 90 percent of the time it’s in the net.”

Basic mathematics would suggest he’s now on pace for 246 goals this year, which would be 154 more than Wayne Gretzky’s single-season record. In all seriousness, there’s no reason the 28-year-old can’t challenge his own personal high of 47 (set in 2021-22).

 

Toews watch

He got the biggest roar of the night during the pre-game ceremony, which also included the Central Division champion and Presidents’ Trophy winning banners being unveiled.

Jonathan Toews might have brought the roof down had he hit the scoresheet in his first-ever game for the Jets — a whopping 910 days after he stepped away from the NHL due to health issues.

He came close on a few occasions, with one shot on goal (and three shot attempts) and several clever passes which his linemates nearly converted. Ultimately, the 37-year-old played 17:46 and won seven of 15 faceoffs while taking one minor penalty.

“A lot of room for improvement, a lot of little things I can do better,” was Toews’ assessment after the game.

“Definitely trying to start the play with the puck off the face-offs; didn’t really get that going for my line out there. But other than that there were some situations where the three of us created and had some chances, even on the power play as well. I was pretty close to making things happen, getting us on the board, so I think there are some positives I’m excited about. (I’ll) just keep trying to build on it.”

 

Special teams

Winnipeg’s power play was a major weapon last year and a big reason they won the Presidents’ Trophy, which was on display in the concourse Thursday night along with the William Jennings (fewest goals allowed), Hart (most valuable player) and Vezina (best goaltender) which belong to Connor Hellebuyck.

They came up empty on a night they sure could have used a goal with the man advantage. The 0-for-4 showing included a late power play after Stars defenceman Thomas Harley accidentally flipped the puck into the crowd.

The penalty kill, however, was a different story. Winnipeg killed off four of the five chances from Dallas, with the only blemish coming just as an extended 5-on-3 advantage was ending early in the third period. The Jets actually outscored the Stars at 4-on-5.

With Josh Morrissey in the box for tripping midway through the third period and the deficit standing at 5-1, Morgan Barron showed a burst of speed to go end-to-end and score on the ensuing breakaway. That was followed 76 seconds later by Connor’s shorthanded goal.

“When you give a good team a 5-1 lead, it’s tough, but this is a resilient group,” said Connor.

“We’ve shown that a lot throughout last year and the years over the past. It was a great response, so we can take that out of it, for sure.”

 

Goalie duel

One of the obvious storylines heading into this game was a showdown between the two best American goaltenders in the game, who will certainly be teammates next February at the Winter Olympics in Italy.

Hellebuyck was busier, stopping 32 of 37 shots that came his way including all 17 he faced in a lopsided second period. Mikko Rantanen, Nils Lundkvist, Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin and Wyatt Johnston all got one by him.

Oettinger, who no doubt hopes to upend Hellebyyck as the No. 1 guy in Milan, turned away 21 of 25 shots.

 

Key play

Wyatt Johnston’s goal at 3:23 of the third period made it 5-1 at the time and ended up being the game-winner.

 

Three stars

1. Jets LW Kyle Connor: 3 goals
2. Stars RW Mikko Rantanen: 1 goal, 2 assists
3. Jets C Mark Scheifele: 3 assists

 

Packing the place

The Jets have now played in front of 16 sellouts in a row at the downtown rink dating back to last year, which ended with the final eight regular-season games and all seven home playoff dates being sold out.

Such an accomplishment wouldn’t have even been a footnote when the NHL first returned to Winnipeg in 2011, but it’s notable in a post-pandemic world which saw the ticket base take a big hit.

 

Goodbye, Gus bus

Winnipeg made a somewhat surprising roster decision on Thursday, placing forward David Gustafsson on waivers in order to make room for Toews on their 23-man roster.

That means young wingers Parker Ford and Brad Lambert, who were both healthy scratches against the Stars, remain with the big club even though neither would have needed waivers.

Gustafsson, 25, was the 60th-overall pick in the 2018 draft and has 149 games with the Jets on his resume, scoring six goals and adding 14 assists.

The defensive-minded skater only played 36 games last year as a frequent healthy scratch but will now get the chance to suit up — either with another NHL club who puts in a claim by Friday afternoon or, if he clears, the Manitoba Moose.

Defenceman Colin Miller was Winnipeg’s other healthy scratch against Dallas.

 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg