The end of a long and tough road trip for the Winnipeg Jets has ended in a 3rd straight defeat. Game 6 of 6 of the road trip was against the Dallas Stars, a team who was entering this game 9-2-0 at home. I was right in predicting before this game that it would be a low scoring, battle tested type of game, and it was just that for most of the game. It wasn’t a bad effort for the Jets, but it just wasn’t enough to get it done against a good Stars team.

It was just the start the Jets needed this afternoon, scoring on their very 1st shot of the game 3 minutes after puck drop. The puck found its way back to Neal Pionk, who sent a pass across to Haydn Fleury. A shot was sent towards the left side of the net, and Adam Lowry deflected it past Jake Oettinger for his 6th of the season, giving the road team a 1-0 lead.

Now with 6 goals in 25 games, Lowry is scoring at a 20 goal pace. Last season, Lowry scored 12 goals, so it’s great to see him helping, along with the rest of the 3rd line, in getting some depth scoring. That goal also marked Lowry’s 111th goal of his career, passing Andrew Ladd for 7th on the all-time goals list in Jets 2.0 history. Also on the opening goal, Pionk picked up his 200th NHL assist.

4 minutes after the opening goal, Logan Stanley took his 1st of 3, yes 3, minor penalties, a slashing call against Evgenii Dadonov. The Jets penalty kill came up clutch throughout this game, including on this opening powerplay for the Stars.

Fast forward to 3 minutes to play in the 1st period, the Stars tied this game up at 1. A very pretty passing play, started by Jason Robertson, led to Wyatt Johnston scoring his 4th of the season. Not much Hellebuyck could do on this goal, and the Stars fans had something to cheer about in the 1st period after being the better team in the opening frame.

Before the 1st period ended, Logan Stanley took his 2nd penalty of the 1st period, a cross-check against Roope Hintz. Once again the Jets penalty kill was shutting down the Stars, and the game went into the 1st intermission tied at 1. It was tough to get a read on how the rest of this game would go, but it was pretty clear that the Stars were the better team after 20 minutes of play.

The 2nd period remained scoreless, but it could have been a much different story for the Jets if it weren’t for their penalty kill. The first 10 minutes of the 2nd period, both teams traded chances, but it was a good old fashioned goalie duo between Connor Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger. With 8 minutes to play, Haydn Fleury took a tripping call against Evgenii Dadonov.

Only 30 seconds later, Logan Stanley took his 3rd penalty of the game, a hooking call against Jason Robertson, sending the Stars on a lengthy 5 on 3. Lucky for the Jets, Roope Hintz took a holding the stick call 1 minute later, so the Jets were only down 1 for the rest of the powerplay. It was a hectic 5 minutes of play, as the Jets took another penalty, this time a slash by Josh Morrissey against Sam Steel.

At the conclusion of this powerplay for the Stars, the Jets were a perfect 5 for 5 on the penalty kill. It was an excellent showing for the Jets penalty kill, who not only killed off all 5 penalties, but didn’t even allow a single shot on goal on multiple occasions.  The game went into the 3rd period tied still tied at 1.

Just 13 seconds into the 3rd period, the Jets had their 2nd and final powerplay attempt after a Jamie Benn high-stick against Neal Pionk. This 2nd powerplay looked overall better than the 1st powerplay (which was a short one in the 2nd), but the Jets couldn’t find a way to take the lead. Teams traded chances for the 1st half of the 3rd period, before the Stars broke the tie with a goal from Mason Marchment with around 8 minutes to go.

Jake Oettinger picked up a secondary assist on this goal, a rare goalie point, by simply passing the puck off to Thomas Harley behind the net. Harley must have seen Marchment sneaking up behind the defence, and he picked up the puck before the blue line and was sent in with Josh Morrissey trailing just behind him. The rest of this play was simply a nice of display of skill, as Marchment gave the Stars a 2-1 lead with his 10th of the season.

The NHL’s 3rd star of the month of November, Connor Hellebuyck, kept the Jets in this game late into the 3rd period. Oettinger was also playing great for the Stars, but the eye test would show that Hellebuyck made the “better” saves throughout this game. With under 2 minutes to go, Hellebuyck went to the bench for the extra attacker. The Jets had a couple chances to tie this game, but they weren’t able to beat Oettinger. Roope Hintz iced this game with an empty netter with 8 seconds to play, his 10th of the season, and the Stars held on for a 3-1 victory.

Final shots on goal for this game was 31-27 for the Stars. The Jets led in face-off percentage, hits and blocked shots, while also giving the puck away less (15-8) and taking the puck away more (5-2). Penalty minutes were 10-4 for the Jets, and if it weren’t for a terrific showing by the penalty kill, this game might have not been as close. The season series between the Jets and Stars is now split at 1, and these two teams won’t meet again until March 14th, 2025.

The Jets still remain tied for 1st place in the NHL standings with the Minnesota Wild, but are now 3rd in the NHL in terms of points percentage with a .720%. It was an overall tough end to this long and difficult road trip, but the Jets will finally return home on Tuesday night to take on the St. Louis Blues. Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CT, and as always stay tuned here at Jets Nation for the latest Winnipeg Jets content.