Win or lose, Saturday was a much sadder and more poignant day for Mark Scheifele and the Winnipeg Jets than a hockey game could ever be. With a very heavy heart, the Winnipeg Jets were eliminated last night in OT, 2-1, by the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. Dallas won the series, four games to two.
n Saturday morning, Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff announced that Mark Scheifele’s father Brad had passed away overnight. At 4:30p.m. local time, coach Scott Arniel announced that Scheifele would play in Game 6. The player indicated that his father would’ve wanted him to play. The hurt is far worse than lost playoff series.
As with the hockey community worldwide, my condolences, thoughts and prayers to the Scheifele family during this very difficult time. Always first class, the Jets organization and community showed tremendous support to the Scheifele family.
Jets survive first period unscathed
The first period belonged to the Stars. They had the Jets hemmed in their own zone for the majority of the period. Although the shots were only 6-4 in the Stars favor, the shot attempts and zone time was much more lopsided. If it weren’t for some timely saves from Connor Hellebuyck, this game could’ve been over in the first period.
Scheifele scores for his dad
The Jets played much better in the second period and for the first time in this series on the road actually opened the scoring. It was who else but Scheifele to do it. On a delayed penalty against the Stars, it was Scheifele that took a pass from Kyle Connor and buried it past Jake Oettinger to open the scoring for the Jets. Sam Steel tied the game for the Stars 6 minutes later when he fired a rebound off the crossbar and into the Jets net.
Morrissey injured
With the second period winding down, Josh Morrissey got tangled up behind the Jets bench with Mikko Rantanen, who then fell awkwardly on Morrissey’s left leg. Morrissey was in obvious pain. Watching the replay, worst case scenario would be an ACL tear and best-case scenario may be an MCL sprain. It was a tough blow to the Jets, who had to play almost the entirety of Game 7 against the
St. Louis Blues without Morrissey as well.
Close call for Appleton
During a tight third period in which neither team gave up much, it was Mason Appleton that had the go-ahead goal on his stick with a seemingly empty net to shoot at just after the halfway mark of the period. However, rather than firing the puck into the gaping net,
Appleton fired it into a sprawling Oettinger to keep the game tied at 1. Next, with 10 seconds left in regulation, Scheifele took a holding penalty to prevent Steel from going on a breakaway. It was the first called penalty of the game. Actually, it probably could have been called a penalty shot as well.
Season over
The Stars began the OT period with 1:50 of PP time to work with. With 17 seconds left on the man advantage, Tyler Seguin found Thomas Harley in the slot who scored on a screened Hellebuyck to win the game for the Stars and end the series. The Stars go on to the Western Conference Final for the third straight year. The Jets go back to the drawing board.
Jets and Stars embrace Scheifele
After the winning goal, Jets captain Adam Lowry went to console Scheifele who was still sitting in the penalty box. Every Jets player and coach gave Scheifele a hug on the ice. During the handshake line, every Stars player also gave him a hug. Very emotional scene for all players, coaches and the viewers as well.
Once again, a big dose of perspective is in order. The Jets lost a playoff series. Mark Scheiefle is going through a pain far worse than any hockey game outcome.
That’s a wrap for the Winnipeg Jets 2024-2025 season. I will be back in a few days to discuss the Jets off-season once all the exit interviews have taken place,
