With the season on the line, the Winnipeg Jets traveled to Texas to take on the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the NHL’s second round of the playoffs. To add to their troubles, the True North family was deeply saddened by the passing of Mark Scheifele’s father, so it was with a heavy heart that the Jets attempted to extend their playoffs on Saturday night.
MINI GAME RECAP
The first period saw Dallas jump out of the gates quickly to test Winnipeg’s defense & goaltender early. The Stars held the puck possession advantage, resulting in them sending way more shot attempts towards the opposing goaltender. Yet because of blocks & bad aim, it was the Jets that actually led in the shot count after the 1st (6 to 3). That was misleading though, since the expected goals stats showed Dallas with a large advantage (1.12-0.20) but the play of Connor Hellebuyck kept the game scoreless when the first horn sounded off.
The middle frame started off much better for the True Northers and 5 minutes in they had their best scoring look of the match when Nikolaj Ehlers was sprung on a breakaway. The speedy Dane tried to open up the 5 hole with a deke, but the Stars’ Jake Oettinger wasn’t fooled. Winnipeg kept up the pressure and when Gabriel Vilardi won a puck battle in the corner, it allowed a quick Kyle Connor shot that produced a big rebound for Mark Scheifele to pounce on to open the scoring. WPG 1-0. Unfortunately that lead only lasted about 6 minutes due to a Dallas rush up the right wing that created a big rebound into the mid-slot, allowing the Stars’ Sam Steel to walk into a slapshot that beat Bucky’s glove. TIE 1-1. The franchises traded looks for the remainder of the period, with Winnipeg holding the advantage in shots (16-14), but Dallas winning the xG battle (2.47-1.13).
The 3rd period saw the Jets outshoot the Stars by a big margin (7-3), yet once again it was the hometown Texans that were able to generate better scoring chances (1.26-0.46). Hellebuyck was excellent to hold the team in the game and the Jets did get some looks to take a lead, most notably a juicy wide open net for Mason Appleton. Yet his shot was headed to the far post, allowing Oettinger the chance to start his dive across the crease and have the puck hit him half way through the act. A turnover in the neutral zone in the final minute gave the potential of a Dallas breakaway chance, but Scheifele opted to pull down Steel before he had the chance. Winnipeg was able to kill off the 18 remaining seconds to send the game to overtime.
The first extra frame saw the Stars with a man advantage for 1:42 and after the Jets were initially able to clear the puck, Dallas got set up in the offensive zone. After some cycling around the perimeter, the opposition was able to create a great scoring chance that Hellebuyck turned aside. But they kept up the pressure with the seconds ticking off Scheifele’s penalty and a low to high pass set up a 1 timer for a way too uncovered Thomas Harley that flew over the shoulder of Winnipeg’s tender and sent Dallas onto the Western Conference Finals.
*****
FINAL SCORE: DALLAS STARS 2 WINNIPEG JETS 1 (OT)
FINAL STATS
Shots: 23-20 WPG / Hits: 54-26 WPG / Face-Offs: 64.0% DAL / x Goals: 4.07 DAL – 1.59 WPG /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 84.3% DAL / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 18 to 5 DAL
*****
SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
*****
SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
*****
ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
*****
GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
*****
If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. Dallas Stars – Saturday May 17 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ Dallas Stars, 2025-05-17
*****
BOJA’s Observations:
- Well, what a ride the Winnipeg Jets provided us fans this season! It started off with a historically hot run that helped the True Northers to their first ever Presidents Trophy and ended with a 6th place finish out of the 16 playoff franchises. I greatly enjoyed the ups & downs of the 2024-25 campaign, even though it didn’t end with the ultimate prize at it’s conclusion.
- Big props to center Mark Scheifele for honouring his father with a great performance under the sad circumstances. The heavy-hearted pivot finished the game with a team leading 0.292 Expected Goals and scored the only goal of the contest for the Jets. He deserved a better fate than sitting in the sin bin when the end of Winnipeg’s season rolled around.
- If you want to look for silver linings from the playoffs, goalie Connor Hellebuyck actually started looking like the elite tender he is in the regular season in the last two games. The most probable Vezina Trophy winner had an Goals Saved Above Expected rating of +5.69 in those contests, which unfortunately wasn’t enough to get him out of the basement for post-season goaltenders’ GSAE ratings (-4.7).
It was nice of the Dallas Stars’ fans to donate to Mark Scheifele’s charity in memory of the passing of his Dad and the team’s players should be congratulated for their nice gestures in the hand-shake line…..but I will still be cheering for the Edmonton Oilers to knock them out of the playoffs in the Quarter Finals.
Thank you for joining me this season at Arctic Ice Hockey to follow our favourite hockey club. I enjoyed the interactions and will miss you all if this place isn’t around next year (not looking likely). While I don’t have the bumps & bruises the Winnipeg Jets’ players do after running the gauntlet of Lord Stanley’s Cup, I certainly feel the fatigue after the close to 200 articles I have pumped out.
So I will likely take a bit of a rest before getting down to a look at what is in store for General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and the Winnipeg Jets in the off-season. Though my curiosity often gets the better of me, so I will probably have the first “summer” article up by the end of the week. If there are any topics or player reviews that you would like to see, please let me know in the Comment section and I will strive to fulfill your off-season needs. Enjoy the sun everyone!!!
UP NEXT: Check back for Off-Season Review articles over the upcoming summer months.
