WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 on Thursday night to force a sixth game in the Western Conference semifinal series.
With Edmonton awaiting the winner in the conference final, the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Jets avoided elimination to send the series back to Dallas for Game 6 on Saturday night with the Stars leading the series 3-2.
“We knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said. “We knew they weren’t going to roll over on us. We’re going to Dallas here and see if we can end it.”
Nikolaj Ehlers had two goals and Mark Scheifele and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored to back Hellebuyck in his second shutout of the playoffs.
Jake Oettinger stopped 31 shots for Dallas. Stars captain Jamie Benn sucker-punched Scheifele during a late scrum, with Benn given a misconduct penalty and possibly facing a suspension for Game 6.
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“They’re going to have a big pushback the next game, so we’ve got to make sure our details are right and we bring it,” Hellebuyck said. “Our backs are against the wall and it’s time to play Jet hockey.”
Scheifele opened the scoring at 6:17 of the second period with a shot that deflected off two Dallas players. Scheifele’s wrist shot from the right side hit Wyatt Johnston’s stick, then struck Thomas Harley skate in front of the net.
Tyler Seguin missed a chance to tie it when hit the left post on a close-range shot with 3:19 left in the second. The Jets got a late power play in the period when Mason Marchment was called for holding Ehlers, but Oettinger thwarted the best scoring chance when Gabriel Vilardi’s shot hit the goalie in the back after he got turned around on a wide scramble.
Ehlers made it 2-0 on a two-man advantage at 2:20 of the third, beating Oettinger in close from the right side. Dallas’ Alexander Petrovic and Esa Lindell were called for tripping penalties in an 11-second span.
Namestnikov scored on another power with 7:53 left, firing a wrist shot from the slot over Oettinger.
Ehlers had a short-handed empty-netter in the final minute.
“We don’t want to be done playing hockey and today showed that,” Ehlers said. “We’ve just got to take that to the next game.”
Scheifele also had an assist, and Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk each had two assists to help the Jets improve to 6-1 at home this postseason. They are 0-5 on the road.
“We haven’t played well on the road at all this playoff, so no better time than now to start,” Lowry said.
