Second Line Leads the Way as Stars Beat Jets 3-2 in Overtime

Jamie Benn, Denis Gurianov, and Tyler Seguin each scored to give Dallas a much needed win.

In a tight Wild Card race where every point counts, the Dallas Stars left the American Airlines Center with two in a 3-2 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets.

Despite vastly outshooting the Jets throughout the game, the Stars never looked too threatening, thanks largely to a dreadful 0-for-5 on the power play. They also never held a lead until the final buzzer, with Winnipeg scoring early in the first and third periods.

But the Stars managed to prevail all the same, thanks in large part to their second line — Jamie Benn, Denis Gurianov, and Tyler Seguin each scored a goal, in that order. It was a three point night for Benn, two for Seguin, and while Gurianov only found the scoresheet once, he was a pain in the Jets’ side all night with four shots on goal.

Jake Oettinger also put in yet another solid performance in his fourth consecutive start. We’ll see if he gets the nod yet again tomorrow when the Stars take on another division rival in the Nashville Predators. Puck drops at 7:30 CT.

First Period

The first several minutes of the game were relatively slow paced, with neither team doing much to pressure the other. But that didn’t stop Winnipeg from striking first — seven minutes in, when Blake Wheeler sniped one past Jake Oettinger on the rush.

The change in score did not change much about the pace of the game, however. It wasn’t until about six and a half minutes left that a Denis Gurianov rush attempt flipped the script, leading to a couple more scoring opportunities for the Stars. Less than two minutes later, a turnover led to a Jason Robertson breakaway, but Connor Hellebuyck refused to give up his first.

Riding the momentum, Dallas then went on the first power play of the evening when Wheeler went to the box for tripping Esa Lindell. But the Stars were actually outshot 3-2 during the two minutes, and failed to tie it up during or after the man-advantage.

Score: Dallas 0, Winnipeg 1
Shots: Dallas 15, Winnipeg 10

Second Period

Dallas would get another power play opportunity less than a minute into the second — a sign of things to come this period — when John Morrissey got a double-minor for high sticking Joe Pavelski. Unfortunately, those four minutes resulted in only three shots on net and no goals — another sign of things to come.

Unsurprisingly, not much action followed the power play, with the best chance either way coming courtesy of a Dominic Toninato breakaway which Oettinger shook off. The Jets would then get their own chance with the extra man roughly halfway through when Mark Scheifele got tripped by John Klingberg, but only managed a couple shots of their own before Wheler was called for holding Luke Glendening.

Once 4-on-4 time expired, Dallas proceeded to do nothing on the power play again. Then we had another penalty as Michael Raffl hooked Pierre-Luc Dubois, putting Winnipeg back on the power play. And somehow that was what finally led to a Stars goal — Neal Pionk coughed up the puck at the point, leading to a 2-on-1 breakaway where Roope Hintz setup Jamie Benn to tie the game:

The Stars made some last second shots up close to try and take the lead but failed to get one past Hellebuyck. After time expired, Adam Lowry was called for tripping Jamie Benn, ensuring Dallas would start the third with, yes, another power play.

Score: Dallas 1, Winnipeg 1
Shots: Dallas 26, Winnipeg 16

Third Period

This time Dallas only managed one shot on net on the power play, shortly after which the Jets got one as Radek Faksa was caught hooking Evgeny Svechnikov. During that power play, Jamie Benn was hi-sticked by Scheifele and somehow didn’t get a call, which was soon followed by Scheifele scoring the go-ahead goal.

Dallas, however, slowly but surely began to put the heat on Hellebuyck to try and tie things up once more. Gurianov had some a nice chance that was blocked, but he ended up scoring less than a minute later when Tyler Seguin sent a beautiful pass across the ice, giving Gurianov a wide open net:

The Stars continued to vastly outshoot the Jets for the rest of the period, but they failed to take their first lead of the game, sending us to overtime.

Score: Dallas 2, Winnipeg 2
Shots: Dallas 38, Winnipeg 21

Overtime

A turnover led to an early opportunity by John Morrissey , but Oettinger stonewalled the Jets’ defenseman with an extended leg. Tyler Seguin responded with a shot on Hellebuyck that popped up in the air, which he then batted mid-air into the net for the game-winner:

Final Score: Dallas 3, Winnipeg 2
Final Shots: Dallas 39, Winnipeg 22