While the last minutes of the regulatory time fell on Tuesday evening, the executive president of Winnipeg Jets, Mark Chipman, punctuated in front of the locker room of his team.
Hands in his pants pockets, his head face down, Chipman occasionally looked at the television instructor in the corridor.
He watched his team press late but could not reduce the deficit, finally abandon a 3-1 decision in Dallas in a defeat of match 4 which left the jets in essential mode for this NHL eliminatory series in the second round.
Chipman reproached his arms and looked away in the moving seconds. He didn’t need to look up. The end of the game horn that made a splendor in the center of American Airlines and the roar of the closed window crowds said everything.
Chipman moved to the side while the discouraged players were heading in the room, a josh Morrissey frustrated hitting the door on the way.
The winners of the presidents trophy were unable to win on the road in these qualifying series and now they are on the verge of elimination. The result, with Mikael Granlund marking the three goals for the stars, left the coach of the Jets Scott Arniel with a clear message for his players.
“Don’t lose your last game,” he said. “Really simple.”
Match 5 takes place Thursday in Canada Life Center, a place that will be a welcome show for a Winnipeg team that has lost nine consecutive playoff games and the five after the season.
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Jets are not breaks and the stars have taken advantage of their opportunities. Jake Oettinger has surpassed Winnipeg Connor Hellebuyck in Net and Dallas plays with confidence.
Free flow skating, the crunchy washer movement and the offensive power that helped jets finish first in the general classification were minimized due to more frequent broken games and general fractures.
Something feels a little absent and when Winnipeg press to find another equipment, he sometimes turns.
There are no easy answers for a team that has not won the playoff games since the opening of the 2023 qualifiers in Las Vegas.
“If I had the answer to why, we would have one at some point,” said Ehlers. “I think this (season), we were really good on the road, and now we have to win at home and find a way here and we hope that match 6.
“So we have to find a way, as simple as that.”
Arniel experienced for match 4 by juggling with her lines with Mark Scheifele on the upper unit with the wingers Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo.
The stars have also changed things while Star Blueliner Miro Heiskanen returned after an absence of more than three months due to a knee operation.
A good start by Winnipeg was canceled by an unruly penalty by Dylan Demelo. It was called to hold the stick and Granlund completed on the power game with a wrist shot that beat Hellebuyck on the side of the gloves.
After Ehlers scored at the start of the second period, Granlund restored Dallas’s advance by shooting a break of 2 against 1. he won his first round of the career hat with a time at chronometer halfway through the third.
“Granny has paved the way,” said stars coach Pete Deboer.
Heiskanen, meanwhile, played almost 15 minutes and set up the final goal of Granlund – a power marker – with a clear pass.
“He worked his buttocks,” said Oettinger about Heiskanen. “Such a large part of this team. The fact that we can add a guy like that halfway through the post-season race is incredible.”
It looks like a player who is preparing to play two other laps. If Oettinger plays as he did on Tuesday, he could very well.
Oettinger made 31 stops, including a backup backing on Kyle Connor in the second period and a short -term escape stop on the Winnipeg striker in the third.
“There were a few guys who had a very good appearance,” said Arniel. “I just have to find a way to bury them.”
Hellebuyck, a Nominé trophy Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy, started the five road losses this spring. He has an average of goals at 5.84 goals and 0.793 for the percentage of backup from his home in the playoffs.
“I leave everything there every night, I do my best,” said Hellebuyck in a rare availability of post-match media for the goalkeeper. “Sometimes it’s a sorrow, but it only takes a small change, a small rebound and things can start to go in our direction.”
The jets led the NHL with 26 victories on the road last season and exceeded the western conference in the percentage of road points.
They will not be back on the road this spring without victory at home in match 5.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
