Finally ending a long stretch of games that were mostly on the road, the Jets suffered a 6-2 loss in Edmonton Saturday night against the Oilers. The Jets returned home tonight against their Central Division rivals: the Dallas Stars. Canada Life Centre was the host for tonight’s game, as the Jets looked to start this 4 game home stand with a much needed win. The now 14-13-1 Jets took on the 20-5-5 Dallas Stars, with the Jets trying to get back into a playoff spot while the Stars are trying to catch the Colorado Avalanche for 1st place in the Central Division.

There were several changes to the Jets lineup tonight, as they once again decided to shake up the combinations, particularly within the forward lines. Alex Iafallo moved up to the top line to play alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor. Gabriel Vilardi moved down to the 2nd line with Adam Lowry and Nino Niederreiter. Tanner Pearson, Vladislav Namestinikov and Cole Perfetti formed the 3rd line, and Jonathan Toews was on the 4th line wing with Morgan Barron and Cole Koepke. One small change to the defense pairings, as Luke Schenn was on the 3rd pairing with Logan Stanley.

Eric Comrie got another start in goal, as Hellebuyck gets closer to returning, as he’s now reportedly 1-2 weeks away. Haydn Fleury is still the only other injured Jets player at the moment, who’s now out of concussion protocol and continues to practice. Comrie entered tonight’s game with a 6-6-1 record, a 3.08 GAA and an average .897 SV%. Tonight’s game didn’t start well for the Jets, but they battled back to make the most of a game which they unfortunately would come just short of a win.

The 1st didn’t start the way the Jets wanted, as Esa Lindell opened the scoring just 44 seconds after puck drop. Mikko Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston set up Lindell at the point, and his wrist shot went past a screened Comrie to give the Stars a very early 1-0 lead.

The Jets didn’t let this goal faze them early, and a minute later they got their 1st powerplay of the night. Justin Hryckowian was called for hooking on Gabriel Vilardi, but unfortunately the Jets weren’t able to tie up the game on this early powerplay. Morgan Barron took a pair of penalties in the 1st, starting with a hooking call at the halfway mark.

Despite the Jets losing a lot of games lately, the penalty kill continues to be pretty consistent, and the Jets kept it a 1 goal game. After this penalty kill was over, the Jets started generating more chances, and took the lead in the shots on goal count. Morgan Barron took his 2nd penalty of the 1st, a tripping call with 26 seconds on Mikko Rantanen, giving the Stars a shortened powerplay to start the 2nd. After the 1st the shots on goal were 11-6 for the Jets, and despite trailing very early, the Jets turned this period around into some positive momentum for them to take into the rest of this game.

The Stars shortened powerplay to start the 2nd was almost over, before the Stars capitalized to make it 2-0. Wyatt Johnston set up Mikko Rantanen in front, who quickly made a drop pass to Roope Hintz before he fired the puck past Comrie who didn’t have much of a chance.

After this goal, the Jets slight momentum that they had at one point in the 1st was gone. Just over a minute later, the Stars made it 3-0. Sam Steel and Mavrik Bourque set up Alexander Petrovic at the top of the faceoff dot, and he fired a booming slap shot that Comrie couldn’t react to on time. Suddenly the Stars had 3 goals on just 8 shots.

It may have looked at this point like it was going to be a long night for the Jets, but they battled back quite nicely. After Mark Scheifele made a nice play to break up a stretch pass, Kyle Connor got the puck and gave it back to Scheifele near the faceoff dot. Scheifele fired a perfect snap shot past Casey DeSmith to get the Jets on the board and make it a 3-1 game.

5 minutes later, the Jets got their 2nd powerplay of the night after Wyatt Johnston was called for hooking on Kyle Connor. The Jets top powerplay unit went to work, and they couldn’t quite score on this advantage, but just 6 seconds after the penalty expired the Jets cut the Stars lead to just 1. Kyle Connor sent the puck back to Josh Morrissey at the point. Morrissey quickly found Scheifele in almost the identical spot where Scheifele scored from to make it 3-1, and this time Scheifele fired a slap shot past DeSmith for his 16th of the season.

This goal really brought the crowd at Canada Life Centre back to life, and gave the Jets a boost of momentum going into the 3rd period. Shots on goal after 40 minutes were 25-14 for the Jets, and what once looked like “game over” at 3-0 was now anyone’s game with 20 minutes to play.

The 3rd period got going after Dylan DeMelo took a high sticking penalty on Matt Duchene at the 3:07 mark. With not much time left on the powerplay, Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen set up Jason Robertson for a nice passing play which ended with Robertson firing a slap shot past the outstretched glove of Comrie, giving the Stars a 4-2 lead.

That goal was not what the Jets needed after gaining some momentum in the 2nd. However, just over a minute later, the Jets cut the Stars lead back down to 1. Cole Perfetti and Gabriel Vilardi set up Logan Stanley, who collected the puck between the two faceoff dots and fired a shot on goal. Stanley followed in towards the net and collected his own rebound, and wristed one into the near empty cage.

A few minutes later, Alexander Petrovic was called for hooking on Mark Scheiefele. Despite some very solid chances on the powerplay, the Jets couldn’t tie the game up, and continued to trail 4-3 with 9 minutes to play. Vladislav Namestnikov took an untimely hooking penalty, sending the Stars 3rd ranked powerplay back to work. The Jets had a successful penalty kill, and were outshooting the Stars 32-19 with 7 minutes to go.

The Jets continued to push for the equalizer, before sending Comrie to the bench with 1:30 left. Mikko Rantanen was called for tripping on a collision with Kyle Connor 1 minute earlier, giving the Jets a chance to go 6 on 4 for almost the rest of the game. The Jets called their timeout with 88 seconds left, giving their star players a chance to rest while they drew up plays to try to tie this game.

Despite a late push, the Jets couldn’t fully get set up at the end of the game, and the Stars held on for a 4-3 win. Final shots on goal were 33-19 for the Jets, who overall played a good game against an elite team despite the loss. What once was a 3-0 lead for the Stars turned into a highly competitive game, and hopefully the Jets can play a similar way going forward as it will eventually lead to some wins.

The Jets will stay in Winnipeg for almost another week, as their regular season schedule continues with a game against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night. Puck drop for this game will be again just after 7:00 pm CT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news, plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.