Jets end road trip with shootout loss to Stars

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/01/2016 (3560 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets came up just short against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center in Texas Thursday night, losing 2-1 in a game decided by a shootout.

Stars forward Tyler Sequin sniped his league-leading 24th goal of the season at 7:55 of the opening frame, with assists from Patrick Sharp and Mattias Janmark.

Jets forward Mathieu Perreault evened the score with his sixth goal of the season 6:47 into the second period, with assists from Nikolaj Ehlers and Tyler Myers.

The teams couldn’t score in the third period or the five-minute overtime, but Tyler Seguin and Patrick Sharp had breakaway goals for Dallas while Andrew Ladd was the lone Jet to score in the shootout.

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets, while Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen stopped 32 shots.

Mid-point slog

The Winnipeg Jets reach the halfway point of the gruelling marathon that is a National Hockey League season tonight still struggling with consistency issues and plagued by sup-par special teams.

The Jets end the trip 2-2-1, dropping the opener in Arizona due to some undisciplined penalties, winning impressively in San Jose, falling flat in Anaheim and then getting spectacular goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck Tuesday in Nashville. In other words, the trip mirrors the first half of the Jets season, in which they have not been able to string more than two consecutive wins together.

“(The win in Nashville) gives us confidence, but I know we can play better and help our goalie out more,” said Jets centre Bryan Little. “We definitely don’t want to come in tonight thinking our goalie is going to have to make 50 saves again. It’s nice to get a win and get that confidence but, at the same time, we want to play better and have a better start to the game.

“(Consistency) is an easy thing to talk about but I feel like that’s the way things have been going for us this year. We win a couple games, we lose a couple games and for us to have a chance this year we’re going to have to get on a roll a bit and try get wins consistently to get some points.”

Asked what areas the team wants to clean up heading into the final chunk of the year, Jets defenceman Tyler Myers said:

“Of the top of my head the PK comes to mind. Certainly we want to improve our special teams. I thought last game was a good step, but at the same time it’s just one game and we’ve got to do it on a consistent basis.”

The Stars lead the NHL in goals with 145 and feature a forward crew that includes the second and third-leading scorers in the NHL in Jamie Benn (24 goals, 52 points) and Tyler Seguin (23 goals, 50 points). That said, Dallas has just returned from an 0-2-1 road trip, leading coach Lindy Ruff to split up Benn and Seguin from playing on the same line.

“Oh man, I think they’re scoring about three and a half (goals) a game,” said Maurice. “They lead the league in shots from the scoring area and while they’re structured to it, what makes them good is their ability to improvise off rushes and make plays. Their back end is so active if you don’t have a good bead on them early, you’re going to have a hard time finding them later in the play because they can skate well and they do find the open man.

“They’ve got a tremendous amount of skill and a real good base of speed to go with it. You’re going to have to be skating, you’re going to have to block shots, you’re going to have to your sticks right and you don’t want to be chasing the play because you’re not catching them.”

Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait

wfpjetscoverage:07012016:wfpjetscoverage