**apologies for the late posting…..still in holiday mode and that means staying up way too long & getting up late.**
The Winnipeg Jets entered the second contest of their series versus the Dallas Stars needing a win to even things up before the franchises head to Texas for the next couple of games. Head coach Scott Arniel was adamant in his media sessions over the past couple days that the True North club had a lot more to give, putting pressure on his players to give a complete 60 minute effort on Friday night.
The Canada Life Centre crowd was treated to a fully available Jets roster, giving the coaching staff the first opportunity of the playoffs to ice what could be the best version of themselves. So did the boost of getting star defenseman Josh Morrissey back bring about success in front of the White Out masses???
GAME RECAP
After Stacey Nattrass belted out the national anthems, the puck was dropped and the hometown Jets got an immediate boost when defenseman Josh Morrissey was high-sticked on the opening shift. That ended up sending Winnipeg to a 4 minute powerplay and they immediately went to work looking for the opening goal. Nikolaj Ehlers came very close when he was set up for a look from the low right face-off circle and had the puck deflect off the crossbar. In the second half of the man-advantage, once again Fly was at it when he got the puck in the bumper position and tried to pass it off to Gabriel Vilardi, who was sitting to the left of the goalie. The pass attempt was blocked by a Dallas defender, but the puck came right back to Ehlers, who quickly released a shot off that struck the left goalpost…but Vilardi pounced on the rebound for his first goal of the playoffs. WPG 1-0. The Stars pushed back and when an official blocked a Winnipeg zone exit attempt, they had a cycle shift that resulted in the Jets taking a tripping penalty to send Dallas to a powerplay. The True Northers did an excellent job when down a man, making it difficult for the opposition to gain the offensive zone and only gave up a point shot during the kill. Shortly after, the Manitoban’s rushed down the ice with Fly carrying the puck up the left wing and center Mark Scheifele driving hard to the net. When Ehlers tried to slip the cross-ice pass right in front of the Stars’ Jake Oettinger, the puck bounced off his defenseman’s skate and into the short side. WPG 2-0. Despite being down 2 early, Dallas is too good to go quietly into the night so they started to tilt the ice in their favour with multiple board cycle shifts. Fortunately, the hometown club played well defensively and kept any scoring chances to the perimeter. After the squads traded unsuccessful powerplays, goalie Connor Hellebuyck was called on to make a couple prime saves before the first intermission…flashed glove on a 1 timer from the slot and then a Neal Pionk defensive turnover forced Bucky to make another big stop from prime scoring position.
The 2nd period almost started off as good for Winnipeg as the opening frame did, when captain Adam Lowry deflected a point shot only to solidly hit the crossbar (which was the 8th Jets’ post of the playoffs). The teams settled in for the next 10 minutes, trading low quality scoring looks as neither club could force their opponents to defend for long spans. The dreaded 2 goal lead for the True Northers was increased when the 3rd line had a great forecheck & cycle shift, eventually working the puck back to the point for a couple shots. The first one was deflected just wide by Nino Niederreiter but Winnipeg got the puck back to Dylan DeMelo for a second chance. This time the defender completely missed the net, allowing the puck to bounce off the back boards and out the other side to Lowry waiting to roof his 4th goal of the post-season. WPG 3-0. Dallas kept coming though and while Winnipeg frustrated them for the most part, Hellebuyck was there to clean up any mistakes that were made. These included Bucky making a massive stop on a Stars rush when he stopped not only the initial shot, but flew across the crease to stone the rebound attempt as well. Then the tender got a bit of a break when Wyatt Johnston was able to deke through the low slot, before his backhand shot hit the goal post. The physicality also picked up in the middle frame, with some large bodychecks thrown including one that sent Lowry into his own bench and Haydn Fleury running over Mason Marchment, who immediately went to Dallas dressing room for medical attention.
Winnipeg had a couple early man-advantages in the 3rd that were unsuccessful in extending their lead, but they did kill off important minutes as the hometown club tried to lock up the victory. Our Jets looked very much like their regular season selves on Friday and it showed in the final period as they limited the opposition to only 5 shots despite Dallas needing a lot of offense to get back into the contest. The Stars’ coaching staff knew they needed a miracle and pulled their goalie with almost 8 minutes left. The extra skater did allow them to finally spend significant time in the offensive end, but once again Winnipeg did well to keep them to the perimeter. Eventually a Stars’ pass attempt to the low slot was broken up by the Jets, allowing Ehlers to throw a backhand down the entire length of the ice to find the empty net. WPG 4-0. The refs gave Dallas another late powerplay look and once again the Vezina version of Hellebuyck showed up to deny an almost for sure goal to keep his shut out bid in tact.
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FINAL SCORE: WINNIPEG JETS 4 DALLAS STARS 0
FINAL STATS
Shots: 25-22 WPG / Hits: 41-35 DAL / Face-Offs: 57.1% DAL / x Goals: 3.80 WPG – 2.07 DAL /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 69% WPG / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 15-7 WPG
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SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
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SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
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ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
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GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
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If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Dallas Stars vs. Winnipeg Jets – Friday May 9 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Dallas Stars @ Winnipeg Jets, 2025-05-09
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BOJA’s Observations:
- Welcome to the NHL playoffs Nikolaj Ehlers. The speedy Dane has had troubles being a difference maker in the post-season, but tonight Fly was all over the place….2 goals and an assist, team leading 7 shots on net, team leading 1.339 expected goals, and a 97.3% xG rating when he was on the ice.
- Have we officially seen the return of the real Connor Hellebuyck? The big tender was excellent last night, getting a shutout as he turned aside 21 shots that included a handful of high quality scoring looks. While Bucky’s +2.07 Goals Saved Above Expected rating was the best of his post-season, he still sits in the 16th spot in that category for playoff goalies. More importantly, Winnipeg’s starter is looking more like his calm, cool self and that bodes well for the Jets as the playoffs go on.
- Other Winnipeg Jets that had big games included Gabriel Vilardi (1st goal and helping to make the PP more dangerous), Josh Morrissey (team leading 22:39 of ice-time, an assist, & a +2 rating), Adam Lowry (4th goal of the playoffs), and Brandon Tanev (great on forecheck & 2nd on Jets w/ 80.9% of xG).
- Mason Appleton & Nino Niederreiter led Winnipeg in body checks, with 6 & 7 respectively. Despite that, Apples had a rough outing with multiple turnovers on zone exits or in the neutral zone. El Nino seemed to be in board battles all game long and while they aren’t exciting, they do sap the energy from the opposing defenders.
- Haydn Fleury & Colin Miller were strong on the 3rd pairing, getting 55.4 xG% in 7:35 of ice-time
- Great penalty killing…. going 3 for 3 while they were making zone entries very difficult for the Stars. Winnipeg also added a powerplay goal to ensure a win in the special teams battle in Game 2.
Well, the Dallas Stars will likely be happy with themselves as they fly back south, getting the split in Manitoba and turning the series into a best of 5 where they have home-ice advantage (3 gms). On the other side of the coin, the Winnipeg Jets will be looking to build on their best performance of the post-season to hopefully follow up with their best road game of the playoffs when the teams meet on Sunday.
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets @ Dallas Stars – Sunday, May 11th @ 3:30 pm CST
