It was maybe the best or at the very least most complete effort the Jets have had in a 60 minute game in a handful of weeks as they found their skating legs and even more importantly found some goals in a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars.

The Jets didn’t score in the first period, but it was maybe the best period of hockey they’ve had in some time as they had a 13-9 edge in shots with a 6-5 edge in high danger scoring chances. The Stars high danger chances came early in the frame as the Jets did start off a bit shaky, but about five minutes in the ice started tilting towards the Dallas end of the ice.

Something that still plagues the Jets in the first period though is shooting the puck wide. Both Mark Scheifele and Brandon Tanev had glorious scoring chances that were about six feet away from the Stars net, and both clean attempts were shot wide.

Still, the Jets were better than we’ve seen in the last few games and it started mostly in their neutral zone play.

We got goals!!

We started off with a Stars goal though on the power play that was granted to Dallas from a brutal call from the stripes.

Of course because hockey is evil this way and because this just seems to be the kind of goals being scored on the Jets right now, the Stars got a 1-0 lead.

Thankfully sometimes the Hockey Gods even things up, although this was more of a case of Winnipeg Jesus helping things along as Mathieu Perreault does some nice work in the corner to get the puck out to Adam Lowry up front.

The Stars actually had a 14-5 lead in shots in that second period and had an edge in high danger scoring chances 5-3. The Stars made it a point to crash the heck out of the Jets net as evidenced by the shot heat map after 40 minutes of play as well as a couple of near misses.

But again because hockey is an evil sport at times, it’s the Jets that go into the dressing room with a lead as Patrik Laine leaves a puck for a streaking Tyler Myers who then does the ol’ wrap around to sneak one past Bishop for a 2-1 lead after 40.

Even more goals! And this time they all belonged to the Jets as they and Kyle Connor finally found some offense.

The Jets overall had a pretty dominating period, leading in shots 12-4 in the period and didn’t give the Stars much in the way of offensive chances against. Throw in a couple of Stars penalties that kept them short-handed a few times that the Jets weren’t able to take advantage of, but at least they kept the Stars away from their end of the ice.

Josh Morrissey iced things late in the game as Dallas had pulled it’s goalie with the man advantage, and then added one more for good measure on a late power play.

Winnipeg picks up a big win, reclaims first place in the Central – with a couple of games in hand – and for the first time since maybe the game against Tampa, put in a pretty solid 60 minute effort in the victory.

For Dallas: Devin Shore – The Stars got less and less in the way of scoring chances as the game wore on, but Shore had a couple of dangerous chances and was a thorn in the side of the Jets for at least the first two periods.

For Winnipeg: Josh Morrissey – Had his offensive work boots on with five shots on goal and a couple more that missed the net. His empty net goal was a heck of a risk, but maybe an indication of just how good he was in the game. He wasn’t going to miss from even 200 feet away.