Postgame Beats: Jets Tie Series, and Connor Hellebuyck Might Be Back

Uh oh

Well, it’s 1-1 now. Dallas got a split on the road, which is what teams all say the job is when you don’t have home ice. But that only matters if Dallas can take care of business at home, now.

Also, it only matters if pucks don’t careen into their net at the slightest provocation from physics. More on that in a moment.

As a reminder, AfterThoughts will be up tomorrow morning. What We Saw, What It Felt Like will be up at D Magazine, shortly.

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The Stars began the game with the same lineup as they did in Game 1:

Granlund-Hintz-Rantanen
Benn-Duchene-Seguin
Marchment-Johnston-Robertson
Bäck-Steel-Dadonov

Harley-Lyubushkin
Lindell-Ceci
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger in goal.

Winnipeg got back their number one defenseman in Josh Morrissey while scratching Luke Schenn, which led to this lineup:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Tanev-Barron-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Miller

Hellebuyck

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The Stars began the game looking for their first victory on TNT/TBS/TruTV/GlorpVision of the playoffs. The game was broadcasted by Brendan Burke and Darren Pang with Ashali Vise as the rinkside reporter.

Josh Morrissey’s return was a painful one for him, as he took a careless Tyler Seguin’s stick to the mouth just seventeen seconds into the game, putting Winnipeg on a double minor of a power play.

Dallas killed the first two minutes efficiently, though Kyle Connor did what Dallas saw them doing in Game 1, in taking the space Dallas’s PK gives down low and trying to curl in front and rip a puck over Oetting’er shoulder at the near post.

Oettinger’s biggest save came on a one-timer from Vilardi, flashing a pad to absolutely rob him. But as happens so often with great power plays like Winnipeg’s a lucky break eventually came, or perhaps two.

Nikolaj Ehlers tried to dish a puck down low to Vilardi, but the backhand bounced off Cody Ceci’s skate and lay perfectly for Ehlers.

Ehlers ripped the puck past a helpless Oettinger, but it hit the post—only to rebound right off Oettinger’s skate and back toward the goal line, where Vilardi tapped it across with ease for a 1-0 lead.

Seguin did his best to redeem himself for the mistake, drawing a tripping call on Morrissey not too long afterward. But despite some good pressure from Dallas, the best chance was surrendered to Adam Lowry, who took advantage of Harley’s inability to settle a puck at the blue line to take it away shorthanded for a long, long breakaway. But Oettinger stayed on the ice to seal the five-hole, rebuffing Lowry’s attempt.

Matt Duchene hit a post for Dallas as well, but the bounces were all Winnipeg early, and Dallas came up empty. It was a power play that could’ve calmed things down if it had gotten Dallas back to level, but no such luck was to be had.

I wasn’t kidding about luck, either. Winnipeg doubled their lead on another freakish bounce in Ehlers’s favor, when he snapped a pass across that Esa Lindell was covering, only for the puck to bounce perfectly off his skate…

…and right into the small gap at the near post left by Oettinger, who was pushing across in case the pass connected.

It was a brutal couple of breaks for Winnipeg, but as the first period went on, you couldn’t truthfully day the Stars deserved any breaks, with Winnipeg controlling the majority of the play, including a couple of extended shifts in the Dallas zone that required good work from Oettinger.

My personal favorite moment of the game through 13 minutes of play was when Colin Miller and his old teammate Jason Robertson got into it in front of the net, with both of them smiling pretty much the entire time. Friendship is stronger than any single game, you know.

Dallas got another power play later in the first when Tyler Seguin drew his second power play of the game with a high stick that looked entirely accidental as both his and DeMelo’s sticks rode up, but in this game, the breaks were everything. That penalty also served to balance out the four minutes Seguin had given Winnipeg earlier on, even if the score didn’t follow suit.

The power play again looked skittish under heavy pressure from Winnipeg, with Harley losing a puck off a won face-off to clear the zone, and Dallas going offside on an entry attempt as well. That was all capped off by a Jamie Benn tripping penalty to cancel out the remaining advantage, though that might have been just as well, given the Stars’ early ineptitude in this game.

The Stars bench was barking at Lowry pretty good on this call, presumably about the way he went down a bit after the stick hit his shinpad. I will simply say that skating on ice can be tricky, and when your leg is whacked a bit off-balance, things can go wrong fast. Whether that’s what happened here or not, the Stars would kill it off, and the 2-0 Winnipeg lead would stay there after 20 minutes.

It nearly didn’t, however, as Jason Robertson gloved down a Jets clearing attempt in the final seconds at the blue line, came in and made a move to lose a desperate Morrissey, and nearly carved the deficit in half with a wicked, confident shot. But he couldn’t quite get it past Hellebuyck’s blocker side.

In fairness, Dallas deserved to be trailing, given how much better Winnipeg had played than them through 20 minutes. But the nature of the bounces and the early penalty by Seguin made the score feel perhaps a bit more sour than it might have otherwise done.

Also, uh, you notice all those grey shots for Dallas below the circles? Those are missed shots (though I think Duchene’s should be coded as a post, but the NHL game trackers apparently disagree).

Connor Hellebuyck is a fabulous goalie, but you can’t beat him when you don’t hit the net.

Second Period

Winnipeg hit another post early in the second, as Lowry tipped a Samberg shot past Oettinger’s glove and off the crossbar. Perhaps that was a sign that the breaks were going to turn in the second period, or perhaps it’s simply the nature of Winnipeg being really good.

Oettinger continued his sharp play on pucks he had any knowledge of whatsoever, however, as a Morgan Barron pass to Iafallo on the doorstep ended up being less dangerous than it was likely to be, thanks to the confident goalie’s positioning.

The second period grew listeless as it progressed, with Dallas giving up easy zone entries and struggling to pressure the Jets on the forecheck much at all, aside from a really diligent Cody Ceci, who skated a puck down after a Dallas icing and not only dumped it in, but pursued it all the way, leading to a short Dallas shift in the Winnipeg zone.

If Cody Ceci is your best forechecker, you probably need to find another gear. Still, credit to Ceci for gutting that one out.

Sure enough, Winnipeg would get their third goal after extended pressure once again, and a point shot by DeMelo deflected off the back glass and right to Lowry, who found the puck on end, allowing him to roof it past Lyubushkin (who’d tripped over Oettinger’s stick, I believe) and a prone Oettinger for the Jets' third goal.

The Stars finally got a golden chance to get on the board when a quick clearance found Benn and Johnston on a 2-on-1, but with Benn charging to the net and creating havoc, Johnston somehow put this backhand off the side of the net, despite the gaping goal mouth.

Alex Petrovic did his part to fire up the boys, leveling Lowry with a shift-ending hit that sent the Winnipeg captain head over heels into the bench.

That shift would end with a ruckus for Petrovic, as he and Lian Bichsel got into it with Barron and Tanev, and the officials sent the full defense pairing off the ice along with the two Jets’ forwards.

The ensuing play would see Dallas with another chance to climb back into the game when a rebound slid beautifully for Evgenii Dadonov to pound home, only for Hellebuyck to reach out desperately and put his glove hand in what turned out to be the right spot, robbing Dadonov.

Jamie Benn got another good chance on the next shift, when Seguin feathered a pass across for Benn for what looked like a tap-in, only for Hellebuyck to have the ice covered, as he usually does down low, as the puck was a bit too tight for Benn to elevate.

The second period saw a couple of players nursing something, as Nik Ehlers was struggling on the bench, and Marchment took a hard hit from Morrissey along the boards that seemed to put him out of sorts, with Marchment’s stick arm turned backward to reverse the puck.

Marchment stayed on for another 20 seconds or so, but he went to the room after the next whistle, which wasn’t an encouraging sign.

Also discouraging was an offensive-zone penalty by Mikko Rantanen, whose attempt to get separation from Samberg resulted in a cross check to the bottom of the neck, and Rantanen was probably fortunate it didn’t go the way of Nicolas Roy in the Vegas/Edmonton series the other night, as it could have done if the stick had been just a couple inches higher.

So the period ended 3-0 to Winnipeg, and Dallas would have most of a penalty to kill to start the third.

This was feeling more and more like Game 4 in Colorado with each passing minute, though Dallas wasn’t getting outplayed quite as drastically. But with Hellebuyck making a couple of dynamite saves to crush Dallas’s attempts to get back into the game, it felt similarly demoralizing after 40 minutes.

Third Period

Dallas weathered the worst of the Winnipeg power play early, though given the score, Winnipeg’s hearts probably weren’t entirely in the fight. Still, it meant Dallas had a glimpse, and a great Harley keep after the penalty expired led to a Rantanen look that Pionk poked off his stick just before he executed a move in the low slot.

Dadonov got another great look off a Winnipeg turnover with a casual bit of play in their zone, but Dadonov’s attempt to set up Johnston for a dunk didn’t connect.

Marchment did return for the third period, and he moved up to the Duchene line in place of Benn, who did not have his best game.

Dadonov moved up to Marchment’s spot with Johnston and Robertson, with Benn sliding down to play with Steel on the fourth line, with Rantanen double-shifting on the right side.

Yet another penalty slowed the Stars’ roll six minutes in, as Lian Bichsel got a bit too eager and hit Vlad Namestnikov into the boards with a cross-check that was properly called.

It nearly worked out for Dallas, however, as Sam Steel got a half-breakaway, but his attempt to pull up and do what Robertson did (plus a goal) didn’t come off, and Steel never got a shot off.

Again, the Stars killed the penalty, but the time lost was as big a problem as anything, and the 3-0 stayed in place as the period approached the halfway mark.

Things stayed jammed up for a bit, and the Stars’ frustration compounded when Harley got sent to the box along with Nik Ehlers, who had also recovered from his second-period ailment(s). The matching minors were entirely fair, but the Stars had enough trouble mounting a comeback with their best defenseman on the ice, let alone without him for two more crucial minutes.

That proved more frustrating when Pete Deboer pulled Oettinger a minute into the 4-on-4 set to give Dallas an artificial power play with a bit over seven minutes to go. It was an aggressive move I liked quite a bit, but Dallas couldn’t cash in, and Oettinger went back in his net when Hellebuyck covered a puck with a few seconds left in the 4-on-4.

Dallas again pulled Oettinger with a few minutes still to play, and Winnipeg again saw fortune favor their, let’s call it boldness, as Ehlers hammered a blind shot down the ice and nailed the empty net with 3:40 to play.

That’s Ehlers, on the right. He has not looked down the ice for some time, and the puck is at his feet. NHL players: pretty good at hockey, I’m told.

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The Stars have been here before. Nursing a 4-0 loss on the road, they now have to rebound at home. After taking Game 1, Dallas needs to hold home ice if they don’t want to have to win a crucial game in Winnipeg, again. And based on how tonight went, that prospect is only as likely as the hockey gods and their servant, Connor Hellebuyck, decide it to be.