Scheifele powers Jets past Stars

DALLAS -- Mark Scheifele had a goal and three assists, Joel Armia had two goals and an assist, and Michael Hutchinson made 27 saves to help the Winnipeg Jets to a 6-3 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
Tobias Enstrom and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist, Blake Wheeler scored, and Nikolaj Ehlers had two assists for Winnipeg (26-30-4), which ended a four-game losing streak (0-3-1).
The Jets traded Andrew Ladd to the Chicago Blackhawks before the game. He had been their captain since 2010-11.

"It's tough. Obviously with a guy like [Ladd], a guy that's such a big part of this team, to see him not a part of it and be gone is saddening," Scheifele said. "We pushed through. We got through it. We knew we had a big game at hand and came through with a win that's huge."

Jason Spezza scored two goals for Dallas (38-18-6), and Patrick Sharp had three assists. Tyler Seguin scored the other Stars goal.
"It's embarrassing," Spezza said. "We've got to cut down our goals-against, we've got to help our goalies out, we've got to play better hockey."
Winnipeg led 3-0 after the first period. Wheeler and Enstrom scored 56 seconds apart to give the Jets a quick two-goal lead.
"For the veteran guys, that was a tough game for them to play, and they played well," Jets coach Paul Maurice said.

Wheeler scored with 4:57 left in the first period with a wrist shot over the glove of Stars goaltender Antti Niemi. Enstrom scored his second of the season by beating Niemi far post with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Armia made it 3-0 when he scored through Niemi's five-hole with three seconds remaining in the first period. There was some confusion about whether it was a goal because time expired and the horn sounded, but after a quick video review, a goal was awarded and 2.8 seconds were put back on the clock.
"I think we channeled [the Ladd trade] in the right direction, used it as motivation," Jets forward Chris Thorburn said. "To have him not there for the meeting and then for the game, it was weird. It was really weird, but the guys did a great job being professionals and getting the job done."
Kari Lehtonen replaced Niemi, who made five saves, to start the second period.

"We had a tough night in a couple of areas," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought our defense had a tough night with some breakdowns. I thought our goaltending had a tough night."
Spezza cut it to 3-1 when he scored off a rebound on the power play 1:59 into the second.
Seguin scored at 3:51 of the second to pull the Stars to within one. He beat Hutchinson to the far post after Sharp's slap shot deflected off Valeri Nichushkin's hand and landed at Seguin's skates.
Dallas tied it early in the third when Spezza scored his second of the night and 21st of the season at 2:23. His wrist shot from below the right faceoff circle went through Hutchinson's five-hole.

"Had a little bit of a push in the second period to make it a one-goal game, but even tying it in the third was a huge plus for us, but ultimately the same story, giving up too many goals against," Sharp said. "That's on us. As a group in here, we can get better on that."
The Jets responded with two goals in 42 seconds, one by Scheifele and the other by Armia, to reclaim their two-goal lead. Scheifele scored on a tap-in at the far post at 6:58, and Armia beat Lehtonen at 7:38 for his second of the game after some deft puck-handling in front of the Dallas net.
"We made a big mistake on the fourth goal, which hurt us," Ruff said. "We were playing well to that point, but again we had a breakdown. Right in front of our goaltender, we gave them a point-blank opportunity."

Trouba scored with 4:05 remaining to make it 6-3.
"They played quick and they played fast, and when it got to three, they got better; they played their best hockey after that," Maurice said of the Jets.
Lehtonen made 17 saves in relief of Niemi.
"We looked like a slow team. I don't know why we didn't play quick enough," Ruff said. "There's not many games where we get stuck in our end as many times as we got stuck in our end tonight. We couldn't close off, and that led to possession time, led to giving pucks back.