Heika’s Take: Stars put together lopsided effort in Game 2 loss to Jets

The Stars know all about the back-and-forth of a playoff series. Heck, they had a few in the previous two weeks against Colorado.

So as much as Winnipeg dominated a 4-0 Game 2 at Canada Life Centre on Friday, Dallas understands the importance of “flushing the game” and moving on.

“We’re an even-keel group, and we know what our best game looks like, so we’ll get back to that,” said veteran center Matt Duchene.

While Wyatt Johnston added, “We feel good. We’re a resilient group and we have a lot of confidence in our game. At this point of the playoffs, we have a pretty good idea of what we need to do each night to win, so it’s just a matter of putting our best game out there for Game 3.”

While it may not feel that way, the Stars are actually in a good place. Dallas earned a split in the first two games and now is tied 1-1 in the best-of-seven series with three of the remaining five games at home. The Stars have been tied through two games a lot in recent series, but were heading out on the road for Games 3 and 4. Playing host to a Winnipeg team that went 0-3 in the First Round away from home seemingly creates a real opportunity.

That said, that same Winnipeg team is feeling good about itself right now.

“They’re a great team and you knew they were going to come out hard in Game 2,” Johnston said. “We probably could have done a better job of matching that, but it’s a long series, and it’s all about how you come back from that.”

The Stars won Game 1, breaking an eight-game stretch in which they had lost the first game of a series. That meant they didn’t have their backs to the wall in Game 2, and it kind of showed. Tyler Seguin took a double minor for high sticking 17 seconds into the game and the Jets cashed in late in the four-minute power play. Nikolaj Ehlers then shot a puck in off of Esa Lindell’s skate seven minutes in and Winnipeg had a 2-0 lead. The Jets were 30-0-3 when leading after two periods this season, and the Stars knew coming back against this team in this building would be difficult.

“You start the game with a 4 minute minor 10 seconds in, and one goes off of our skate, and you’re down 2-0,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s a big hole in this rink. Self-inflicted the [first] one, the other was kind of unlucky. Having said that, I thought we pushed back, Hellebuyck made some saves, but I thought that was the game.”

Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck is expected to win the Vezina as best goalie in the NHL and is also a finalist for the Hart Trophy (regular-season MVP), but he struggled in large chunks of the First Round and entered Game 2 with a 3.75 GAA and .830 save percentage. So when he looked like top-notch Connor Hellebuyck in posting a shutout with 21 saves, that was a boost for the Jets and a concern for the Stars.

“Obviously, when you get shut out, it doesn’t feel good,” Duchene said. “We’re too good of a team to get shut out. He made some great saves, he’s going to have games like that, he might be MVP of the league this year, but we have to have a short memory.”

Dallas created some good scoring chances, but couldn’t continue to ride the magic of Mikko Rantanen, who had posted back-to-back hat tricks but got nothing in 21:42 of ice time on Friday. Winnipeg stretched its lead to 3-0 in the second period and added an empty-netter in the third. However, Jake Oettinger was great again, so the big challenge going forward is for the scorers.

Dallas also needs to address its penalty problems. Veterans Seguin and Jamie Benn took two in the first period, and then Lian Bichsel, Alexander Petrovic and Rantanen were nailed in the second period. The Stars have been shorthanded 31 times in nine playoff games for an average of 3.4 per game. They were shorthanded an average of 2.8 times in the regular season.

“We’ve just got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,” said defenseman Cody Ceci. “It’s tough to start a game that way. If we take too many penalties against these guys, they have a really good power play and they’re going to make us pay.”

Duchene added, “I have no explanation. I’ve never seen so many 4 minute high sticking penalties in my life. And it’s not that guys are being undisciplined, guys are just competing. Maybe it’s trying to do too much sometimes. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but we’ve got to put our finger on it and clean it up, because we’re a heck of a team at 5-on-5.”

DeBoer said the message has been delivered for the past month, and sometimes the players have to simply do the right thing on the ice.

“We can talk about it, but that’s in our dressing room,” DeBoer said. “They’ve got to grab the importance of that and realize it and fix it.”

Because the roller coaster ride is still going. If the Stars can take advantage of two games at home and start taking control, then the Jets might have to go back to Winnipeg in a tough spot. But if Winnipeg gets its confidence back and Hellebuyck continues playing top-notch hockey, then Dallas will have to find a way to beat the NHL’s best team this season.

Ceci was on an Edmonton team that made it to the Stanley Cup Final last season, so he understands the emotions.

“It helps a lot,” Ceci said of the experience. “Once you go through some long runs, you understand the ups and downs and how they can weigh on you and how quickly you have to move on. It’s unfortunate and we would have liked to have a better effort tonight, but we can’t let it drag into next game.”

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.