The Winnipeg Jets staved off elimination Thursday night with a near-perfect 4-0 shutout victory at Canada Life Centre over the Dallas Stars in Game 5.
They face elimination again Saturday as the series shifts back to Dallas. Here, we’ll dive into four keys to the Jets pushing the second-round series to Game 7.
1: Better Start on the Road
The Jets’ road woes in both this and previous postseasons and are well documented. They fell to 0-5 this postseason after Game 3 and 4 losses at American Airlines Center and have lost their past eight playoff games away from downtown Winnipeg since the 2023 postseason.
The Jets have been outscored a combined 25-8 on the road in these playoffs and only scored the first goal in one of those games (Game 4 of the first round against the St. Louis Blues.) They have never entered the first intermission with a lead, and have entered it trailing four times.
The Jets cannot afford to be chasing early in Game 6. They need to stay in structure, and while they should do their best to create offense off turnovers and on the rush, if getting into the intermission tied means lowering their risk profile to prevent shots and keeping things to 0-0 through 20, that’s what they should do.
The Jets obviously are capable of being road warriors as they captured an NHL-high 26 victories abroad in the regular season. It’s now about finding the strength of character to do what they’ve done well in front of their fans in the playoffs in hostile territory.
Related: 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2 Hub
“We’ve got win a road game. We haven’t played well on the road at all this playoffs. So, no better time than now to start,” Jets’ captain Adam Lowry said postgame.
2: Win the Special-Teams Battle
The Jets’ power play limped into the elimination game having gone one for 16 in the series and six for 28 in the postseason overall (15.8 per cent) despite finishing first in the NHL in power-play percentage (29.90) in the regular season.
They finally made some strides in Game 5, tallying two timely third-period goals on the man advantage to turn a tenuous 1-0 lead into a more-secure 3-0…
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