DALLAS (AP) \u2014 The Dallas Stars may just want to wrap up their second-round Western Conference series when they have a chance in Game 6, and not let Connor Hellebuyck and the Jets get another game in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
While the Stars have a 3-2 series lead and aren\u2019t facing elimination Saturday night at home, a loss would send them quickly back to Winnipeg for a series-deciding game. That is where Hellebuyck has back-to-back shutouts and hasn\u2019t allowed a goal to Dallas in more than 141 minutes on the ice since Mikko Rantanen\u2019s hat trick in the second period of Game 1 that was enough for a 3-2 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like we needed to win this one. You don\u2019t want to give them any life at all. We don\u2019t want to come back here for Game 7,\u201d Stars forward Matt Duchene said after their 4-0 loss Thursday night<\/a> extended the series. \u201cObviously up 3-1 at one point, it might take seven. They\u2019re a good enough team, it could.\u201d<\/p>\n Hellebuyck and the Jets, however, have lost nine consecutive playoff road games since winning their postseason opener at Vegas in 2023, including Games 3 and 4<\/a> of this series in Dallas. The Presidents\u2019 Trophy winner has been outscored 25-8 away from home in these playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to win a road game,\u201d Jets captain Adam Lowry said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t played well on the road at all this playoff, so no better time than now to start.\u201d<\/p>\n Winnipeg Jets at Dallas Stars<\/p>\n When\/Where to Watch: Game 6, Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT (ABC)<\/p>\n Series: Stars lead 3-2.<\/p>\n The winner of this series, which will have home-ice advantage in the next round, advances to play a resting Edmonton team in the Western Conference Final. The Oilers wrapped up their second round-victory<\/a> over Vegas with a 1-0 overtime win in Game 5 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Dallas is trying to reach the West final for the third season in a row, and lost in six games to Edmonton<\/a> last year. Winnipeg\u2019s last conference final was in 2018.<\/p>\n Stars captain Jamie Benn sucker-punched Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele during a late scrum in Game 5. Benn was given a misconduct penalty then, and on Friday was fined by the NHL the maximum-allowed $5,000, but avoided a suspension.<\/p>\n \u201cMy face hurts. There\u2019s not much I can really say in this situation,\u201d Scheifele said Friday before the Jets flew to Texas.<\/p>\n Scheifele got credited with the opening goal Thursday on a wrist shot that deflected off two Dallas players<\/a> and past goaltender Jake Oettinger, who had 31 saves. The Jets had a two-man advantage after consecutive tripping periods early in the third period and went ahead 2-0 when Nikolaj Ehlers scored \u2014 he added a late empty-netter for his fifth goal in the series.<\/p>\n \u201cThey played with a desperation level like it was an elimination game. We\u2019re a little bit off that,\u201d Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. <\/p>\n Dallas has won five home games in a row since starting the postseason against Colorado with its eighth consecutive Game 1 loss \u2014 an unexplainable streak that finally ended with the Rantanen-led win to open this series. That was after his four-point third period with a hat trick in Game 7<\/a> against the Avalanche, his former team.<\/p>\n If the Stars do need another Game 7 on Monday night, they have won all three they have played under DeBoer over three seasons. He is the only coach or player in NHL history to be part of nine Game 7 victories<\/a>, with four different teams, and hasn\u2019t lost one.<\/p>\n Still, with a chance now to close out the series at home, Dallas would prefer not to have to play another one.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to approach this like a Game 7, even though we have the luxury of it not being a Game 7,\u201d DeBoer said. <\/p>\n The Jets, meanwhile, are trying to stave off elimination for the third time this postseason.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would mean that we\u2019re not going on vacation yet,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cWe want to go to Dallas and win that game. … It\u2019s been so special to play here in front of this crowd, and we want to repay them by coming back and playing a Game 7 here.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (AP) \u2014 The Dallas Stars may just want to wrap up their second-round Western Conference series when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[1746,196,147,5278,5,424,3733,3522,2876,270,285,4,292,794,2087,43,2583,14,104,197,1275,77],"class_list":{"0":"post-38084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-adam-lowry","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-dallasstars","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jake-oettinger","14":"tag-jamie-benn","15":"tag-mark-scheifele","16":"tag-matt-duchene","17":"tag-mikko-rantanen","18":"tag-national-hockey-league","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-nhl-hockey","21":"tag-nikolaj-ehlers","22":"tag-pete-deboer","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-sports-transactions","25":"tag-stanley-cup","26":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","27":"tag-stars","28":"tag-tx-state-wire","29":"tag-winnipeg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114533330052633331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}