DALLAS — As the final minutes of regulation time ticked down Tuesday night, Winnipeg Jets executive chairman Mark Chipman paced outside his team’s dressing room.
Hands in his pant pockets, head facing down, Chipman occasionally glanced up at the television monitor in the hallway.
He watched as his team pressed late but couldn’t cut the deficit, eventually dropping a 3-1 decision to Dallas in a Game 4 loss that left the Jets in must-win mode for this second-round NHL playoff series.
Chipman folded his arms and looked away in the dying seconds. He didn’t need to look up again. The game-ending horn that blared throughout American Airlines Center and the roar from the sellout crowd said it all.
Chipman moved to the side as the dejected players made their way into the room, a frustrated Josh Morrissey punching the door on his way through.
The Presidents’ Trophy winners have been unable to win on the road in these playoffs and now they’re on the brink of elimination. The result, with Mikael Granlund scoring all three goals for the Stars, left Jets coach Scott Arniel with a clear message for his players.
“Don’t lose your last game,” he said. “Real simple.”
Game 5 goes Thursday at Canada Life Centre, a venue that will be a welcome sight for a Winnipeg side that has lost nine straight road playoff games and all five this post-season.
The Jets aren’t getting breaks and the Stars have taken advantage of their opportunities. Jake Oettinger has outplayed Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck in net and Dallas is playing with confidence.
The free-flowing skating, crisp puck movement and offensive potency that helped the Jets finish first in the overall standings have been minimized due to more frequent broken plays and general scuffling.
Something just feels a little off and when Winnipeg presses to find another gear, it sometimes backfires.
There are no easy answers for a team that hasn’t won a road playoff game since the 2023 playoff opener in Las Vegas.
“If I had the answer to why, we would have got one at some point,” Ehlers said. “I think this (season) we’ve been really good on the road, and now we need to win at home and find a way here and hopefully make it to Game 6.
“So we need to find a way, simple as that.”
Arniel experimented for Game 4 by juggling his lines with Mark Scheifele on the top unit with wingers Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo.
The Stars also changed things up as star blueliner Miro Heiskanen returned after an absence of over three months due to knee surgery.
A good start by Winnipeg was negated by an undisciplined penalty from Dylan DeMelo. He was called for holding the stick and Granlund tallied on the power play with a wrist shot that beat Hellebuyck on the glove side.
After Ehlers scored early in the second period, Granlund restored the Dallas lead by shooting on a 2-on-1 break. He notched his first career hat trick with a one-timer midway through the third.
“Granny led the way,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer.
Heiskanen, meanwhile, played almost 15 minutes and set up Granlund’s final goal — a power-play marker — with a crisp pass from the point.
“He’s worked his butt off,” Oettinger said of Heiskanen. “Just such a big part of this team. The fact that we get to add a guy like that halfway through the post-season run is incredible.”
Sounds like a player who’s preparing to play two more rounds. If Oettinger plays like he did Tuesday, he very well might.
Oettinger made 31 stops, including a highlight-reel save on Kyle Connor in the second period and a short-handed breakaway stop on the Winnipeg forward in the third.
“There were a couple of guys that had some really good looks,” Arniel said. “Just got to find a way to bury those.”
Hellebuyck, a Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy nominee, has started all five road losses this spring. He has a 5.84 goals-against average and .793 save percentage away from home in the playoffs.
“I leave it all out there every night, I’m doing my best,” Hellebuyck said in a rare post-game media availability for the netminder. “Sometimes it’s a heartbreak, but all it takes is one little change, one little bounce and things can start going our way.”
The Jets led the NHL with 26 road wins this past season and topped the Western Conference in road points percentage.
They won’t be back on the road this spring without a victory at home in Game 5.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
