Winnipeg Jets on brink of elimination after 3-1 Game 4 loss in Dallas
Tuesday night in Dallas, the Winnipeg Jets played their best road game of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They still lost.
Jake Oettinger was brilliant in goal while Mikael Granlund scored a hat-trick as the Dallas Stars took down the Jets 3-1 to take a 3-1 lead in their second round series.
The Jets had a couple decent early chances before Dylan DeMelo took an ill-advised penalty for holding Granlund’s stick in the neutral zone and the Stars made Winnipeg pay.
The Jets cleared the puck down the ice after the ensuing faceoff but Granlund gathered the puck in his own end, skated through the neutral zone and cut into the Jets end before sending a low wrister on goal from the high slot that eluded Connor Hellebuyck to open the scoring at the 8:36 mark.
It was the kind of shot that Hellebuyck should have stopped but instead, the Jets fell behind the eight-ball as they so often have in their previous road games this postseason.
Winnipeg carried the bulk of the play for the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Stars 10-5 but were unable to get one past Jake Oettinger.
The Jets began the second period with a minute left on a Tyler Seguin holding penalty and just moments after the penalty expired, Winnipeg got on the board.
Kyle Connor got the puck to Nikolaj Ehlers on the half-wall before Ehlers sent a shot on goal that surprised Oettinger and beat the goalie five-hole to tie the game 62 seconds into the middle frame.
Each team would fail on a power play look later in the period as the game stayed deadlocked, each team taking turns controlling play.
Winnipeg had a great chance to take the lead late on an odd-man rush as Alex Iafallo carried the puck below the goal line before sending a pass in front to Connor but the Jets’ sniper shot the puck into the left pad of Oettinger.
That proved to be a huge moment because the Stars regained the lead exactly one minute later.
After Neal Pionk pinched at the Stars blueline, Nino Niederreiter covered the point for him but he failed to get the puck in deep, turning it over to Mikko Rantanen. He sent the puck ahead to Granlund to jump-start a 2-on-1 that Granlund finished by rifling a shot top-shelf past Hellebuyck to make it 2-1 with 2:08 to go in the second.
Winnipeg maintained their edge in shots on goal after 40 minutes, outpacing Dallas 20-13.
The Stars got a golden opportunity to put the game away just 3:26 into the third when Haydn Fleury received a double-minor for high-sticking after catching Roope Hintz in the mouth.
Winnipeg wound up with a great look about two minutes into the penalty when Connor got sprung on a partial breakaway but he wasn’t able to get much on his shot as it got turned aside by the pad of Oettinger.
With just seconds to go in the double-minor, Matt Duchene rang a shot off the crossbar and it looked like Winnipeg would get the kill but after the puck hit the crossbar it landed on the stick of Miro Heiskanen at the point. Playing in his first game since January, Heiskanen slid the puck to Granlund for a one-timer from the faceoff dot to Hellebuyck’s left and it beat Hellebuyck to make it 3-1 with 12:37 remaining.
It was the first career playoff hat-trick for Granlund, who had scored just one goal in ten games this postseason coming into the night and 12 goals in 69 playoff games dating back to 2014.
Hellebuyck made multiple big saves down the stretch of the third to keep his team in it, leading to a huge power play with 4:53 to go. But Winnipeg failed to register a shot in the two minute chance, with the best look coming after the penalty expired when Pionk was stopped on a low-percentage look from high in the slot.
Ahead of the ensuing faceoff with 2:51 remaining, the Jets pulled Hellebuyck for an extra attacker, needing to recapture the 6-on-5 magic that kept them alive in Game 7 of their first round series with St. Louis.
But the Jets never really threatened to score as the clock ran out on another road loss in the playoffs, their ninth in a row dating back to a Game 1 win in Vegas in the 2023 first round.
Oettinger outplayed Hellebuyck in this duel of top American goalies, with Dallas’ netminder turning aside 31 shots while Hellebuyck made 21 saves in defeat, though it was the first time in Winnipeg’s nine-game postseason road losing skid that Hellebuyck had allowed less than four goals.
Special teams also remain an issue for the Jets, who went 0-for-3 on the power play and are now 1-for-15 for the series while Dallas scored twice with the man advantage.
The Jets will try and save their season Thursday night in Game 5 of the series in Winnipeg. The puck will drop around 8:50 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting at 6 p.m
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