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Styles make fights, they say, and that should be a central point when the Stars and Winnipeg Jets meet in the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting Wednesday.

The Jets, after all, are seen as one of the most relentless defensive teams in the NHL, and that should be different than what the Stars just saw in the free-wheeling Colorado Avalanche. Still, coach Pete DeBoer said the key for Dallas is playing its own game to the best of its ability.

“Nothing is that dramatically different,” DeBoer said. “They’re all versions of each other. I think Winnipeg defends really well. They hang their hat on defending, so that presents a little bit of challenge than the individual player who can break you down.”

Stopping the Avalanche was sort of tuned to stopping Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Stopping Winnipeg is more about controlling yourself. The Jets are a fantastic counter-attack team and an incredibly patient group, so Dallas needs to play smart. But, as DeBoer said, playing smart is a requirement in every series.

“We know what to expect from Winnipeg. They won the league this year in the regular season, they finished ahead of us,” Stars center Matt Duchene said of a Jets team that won the Presidents’ Trophy and finished 10 points ahead of Dallas, which was fifth best in the NHL. “Going into the Colorado series, you thought it was going to be more freewheeling, but then it wasn’t. Give them credit, they were stingy.”

And stingy is the word you hear most about the Jets. Winnipeg led the league in best GAA at 2.32 goals against per game and goalie Connor Hellebuyck is the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as best goalie in the league. In four games against the Stars, Hellebuyck went 3-1-0 with a 1.01 GAA and .965 save percentage.

“That’s real. We own that record,” DeBoer said. “They were better than us in the games we played against them in the regular season. They won the Presidents’ Trophy, that’s real. They earned all of those things, so it’s on us to prove that we can beat them.”

The Stars are hoping starting on the road will be a good thing. Dallas has typically started at home in series and is 0-7 in Game 1s under DeBoer. So, getting Games 1 and 2 in Winnipeg on Wednesday and Friday could be a good thing.

“We’d love to take Game 1,” Duchene said. “It would be really nice to start with the ball.”

Dallas has rallied back to win five of the series when they lost Game 1, so they understand the process of the playoffs. That’s one of the reasons the poor results against Winnipeg don’t really faze the Stars.

“I think playoffs are a different animal,” Duchene said. “We didn’t like a lot of our games against them, but playoffs is different. They play kind of a playoff style during the regular season, and we at times didn’t adapt to that. Now, we’re in the playoffs. You go in with an open mind and this series will take on its own life and its own personality, and we’ll just adapt.”

A big help in adapting could be the return of defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who has been out since January 28 with a knee injury. Before Heiskanen went out, the Stars ranked sixth in the league in shots on goal against at 26.7 per game. In the time he was out, the Stars ranked last at 32.7. In the seven playoff games, Dallas was outshot 26.6-to-34.3. Winnipeg outshot opponents 27.7-to-23.7.

“We’ve noticed that a lot,” Duchene said of Heiskanen’s absence. “He plays so many minutes and does so many things. The guys who have been in have done a great job, but you don’t replace a guy like that.”

Jason Robertson also missed the First Round after suffering a lower body injury in the final regular-season game. Both Heiskanen and Robertson have been skating and could return, but DeBoer said on Monday that decisions won’t be made until Game 1. Duchene said the players know how much both could add, but also how well the current players did in beating Colorado.

“It would be really nice to get our full team together,” Duchene said. “At the same time, we’re not counting the hours ‘til we get those guys back. We know we can do it with what we have. We just showed that.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.

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