{"id":56457,"date":"2025-05-17T03:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T03:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/56457\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T03:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T03:55:10","slug":"jets-survive-game-5-like-past-versions-couldnt-but-can-they-do-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/56457\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets survive Game 5 like past versions couldn\u2019t, but can they do it again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2014 The Winnipeg Jets<\/a>\u2019 season was on the line, but this time there was no last-second miracle comeback. The Jets\u2019 4-0 win in Game 5 was a 60-minute onslaught.<\/p>\n

The Jets delivered their best game of the playoffs in their most important, must-win Game 5 \u2014 and earned one more chance to keep their season alive. It took Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s second straight home shutout, a resurgent Winnipeg power play, a little bit of luck, and a level of desperation past Jets teams couldn\u2019t have matched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was everybody. That was our whole roster stepping up and knowing what the challenge was in front of us. And putting their best game on the ice,\u201d said Jets coach Scott Arniel. \u201cAnd it was everybody: forwards, D, goaltender. It was everybody stepping up, not wanting to be eliminated tonight. You could see it right from the puck drop, the opening shift. We didn\u2019t take our foot off the gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

As hockey games go, Game 5 gave Winnipeg\u2019s Canada Life Centre crowd everything it could have asked for. The Jets dominated the first period, outshooting Dallas 11-4 and creating scoring chances for top scorers Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele that Jake Oettinger turned aside. Then, when Winnipeg lost its defensive coverage to open the second period, Hellebuyck came to their rescue. Matt Duchene found Thomas Harley undetected in the slot, Harley fooled Hellebuyck by taking the puck to his backhand and then Hellebuyck\u2019s reflexes took over.<\/p>\n

HELLE SAYS NO \ud83d\ude45\ud83d\ude45\ud83d\ude45 pic.twitter.com\/q18Fxx66sl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 16, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was gonna tip it,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cSo I had a bit of a blocker reaction. Then he pulled it back, and he might have fanned on it a little bit, but he tried to go glove side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, Scheifele took a shot off the rush that hit Wyatt Johnston\u2019s stick, then bounced off Harley\u2019s skate and behind Oettinger. The Jets had their game-winning goal and, even though Ehlers and Vladislav Namestnikov\u2019s third period power play goals were much nicer to look at, there is poetry in the way Winnipeg won Game 5: There\u2019s no way the the Jets who lost to Vegas and Colorado in five games each could have beaten Dallas on Thursday. They\u2019d have been blown out before a fluky, double-deflection goal like Scheifele\u2019s could have done them any good.<\/p>\n

Facing elimination in Game 5 against Vegas in 2023, the Jets were outshot 23-14 and outscored 4-0 by the second intermission. They pushed back harder against Colorado in the same circumstances last season, but trailed 3-2 after 40 minutes after recovering from a poor first period with a better effort in the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be able to push back when things aren\u2019t going your way,\u201d Rick Bowness said after the Vegas series. \u201cWe had no pushback. Their better players were so much better than ours tonight, they deserved to win. They were the better team in the regular season, (and) they were the better team in this series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those words aren\u2019t true anymore.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u2019s season was on the line, and this time, Winnipeg\u2019s best players rose to the occasion. Scheifele scored a goal and an assist. Connor picked up two assists. Ehlers, whose playoff reputation falls short of his quality as a player, scored twice and is now tied for third in Jets playoff scoring with seven points in seven games. Hellebuyck, whose Game 6 could redefine his playoff narrative<\/a>, delivered his best postseason performance.<\/p>\n

Ironically, those accomplishments say more about the level the Jets have reached as a team than they do about the individuals involved.<\/p>\n

Zoom out past Hellebuyck\u2019s heroics, Scheifele\u2019s fortunate bounce, Ehlers\u2019 clever five-on-three shot, Namestnikov\u2019s rocket wrist shot and Ehlers\u2019 empty netter: The story of Game 5 is that the Jets won a game they couldn\u2019t have won in recent history. There was no last-minute miracle because no miracle was necessary. There was no postgame tirade about a complete lack of pushback because no such tirade was needed.<\/p>\n

It was also the first time in franchise history that they\u2019ve won an elimination game outside of a Game 7, and their reward is the opportunity to do it all over again, only this time in much tougher circumstances. The Jets, mired in a nine-game playoff road losing streak, must beat the Stars in Dallas on Saturday. Win that, and then there\u2019s the matter of Pete DeBoer\u2019s 9-0 record in Game 7s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that we got into this position,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cBut you know what? I believe in this group, I believe in myself, and I believe in all our of our fans, so we\u2019re going to continue to compete and leave it all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll get back to Winnipeg\u2019s unfortunate position in a moment. It\u2019s worth noting that Ehlers and Arniel joined Hellebuyck in putting Jets fans at the heart of his motivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been so special to play here in front of this crowd,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cWe want to repay them by coming back and playing a Game 7 here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love for a chance to come back and do it in Game 7, but we\u2019ve got a lot of work ahead of us in Game 6,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cTo reward our fans and to give them a chance to see another game, that\u2019s what we were looking to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how do the Jets win their first road game of the playoffs? By dragging the series back to Winnipeg?<\/p>\n

Step one is bottling what worked in Game 5. Hellebuyck locked in, the Jets\u2019 power play came to life and Winnipeg got goals from the top and middle of the lineup. The shutout belonged partly to the goaltender, partly to better puck support in all three zones and even to a little bit of puck luck. Harley could have tried to deflect his shot, like Hellebuyck thought he wanted to do. Tyler Seguin could have gone bar-down with his second-period rush chance instead of going bar-and-out. But Harley and Seguin\u2019s chances were two of Dallas\u2019 few Grade A\u2019s on the night. The Stars are a potent rush team; Winnipeg got through most of Game 5 without conceding odd-man rushes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were quick with our decisions, we were quick with the reads, quick supporting the puck all over the ice,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n

He also spoke to Winnipeg\u2019s self-inflicted wounds in games 3 and 4.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We were) hurting ourselves within our team game, feeding into their transition, feeding into their offence,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cWe talked about if we could get back to defending how we have all year, if we could get back to that fast transition, good puck support all over the ice, we\u2019d put ourselves and Helly in a much better position to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to consider the role matchups played in Dallas\u2019 home ice advantage. Stars coach Pete DeBoer is good at using last change to keep his best players away from Lowry\u2019s shutdown line \u2014 and targeting Scheifele\u2019s line instead. Consider that the 8:37 Mikko Rantanen played against Lowry in Winnipeg in Game 5 is more than Rantanen played Lowry in both games in Dallas. Through five games, Winnipeg has outshot Dallas and kept the score to 1-1 during Lowry versus Rantanen minutes, while Rantanen has outscored Scheifele\u2019s line 2-0 while keeping Winnipeg hemmed in its zone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a massive swing, with impacts at both ends of the ice. Every shift that Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund beat Scheifele\u2019s line in transition creates offence for Dallas and keeps three of Winnipeg\u2019s top offensive players 200 feet from Jake Oettinger.<\/p>\n

Alex Iafallo’s bump up is all of the way t othe top line:<\/p>\n

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Ehlers-Lowry-Vilardi
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Tanev-Barron-Appleton https:\/\/t.co\/buKMRnh6rQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Murat Ates (@WPGMurat) May 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember Winnipeg\u2019s last-minute line shuffle to start Game 4? Arniel deflected questions about his new line combinations, offering only that it was about \u201cmatchups\u201d but it\u2019s clear that he was trying to give Scheifele\u2019s line some defensive help.\u00a0Connor and Scheifele sometimes miss their assignments playing transition defence. Alex Iafallo was a safety valve.<\/p>\n

It gets lost because Winnipeg lost Game 4, but Arniel\u2019s thought process was mostly vindicated: Connor, Scheifele, and Iafallo sawed off their minutes, earning a 7-6 edge in shots and a 0-0 scoreline while playing together.\u00a0From an X\u2019s and O\u2019s standpoint, Iafallo helps Connor and Scheifele by staying on the right side of the puck on breakouts and by staying on the right side of his check when the Stars are rushing up ice. There have been times when the Connor\/Scheifele\/Vilardi line gets caught up the ice \u2014 and DeBoer has leaned into that matchup to try to get offence for Rantanen, Granlund, and Hintz.<\/p>\n

MIKKO RANTANEN CAN\u2019T BE STOPPED \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa: Watch Jets vs. Stars Game 3 on Sportsnet pic.twitter.com\/1GfACUMgtf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not just about the hometown crowd.<\/p>\n

If Winnipeg is meant to beat Dallas in Game 6, the Jets need to shut down the Stars\u2019 dynamic rush attacks. To do that, Winnipeg needs Connor and Scheifele to play their best 200-foot games of the playoffs. Arniel can also try to help with lineup tweaks like he offered in Game 4, but it\u2019s on his players to execute such that they don\u2019t give up as many Grade A chances for free as they did earlier in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were winning the battles the first couple games before this one, and we needed to step up,\u201d Connor said, \u201cAnd I think everybody did. It\u2019s one game and we\u2019ve got to re-focus (quickly) and get ready for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u2019s suffocating 4-0 win in Game 5 means only that a series comeback is possible. It\u2019s still the best result available to the Jets in Game 5, and a better result than Winnipeg\u2019s core had achieved in recent years. The Jets are off to Dallas to see if they can achieve their first road win of the playoffs \u2014 and their season is on the line all over again.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Terrence Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n