GAMEDAY: Stars at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets have started their four-game homestand 3-0-0, with a 7-4 win over Tampa Bay Lightning, a 3-0 win over Utah Hockey Club and a 1-0 win over Colorado Avalanche Thursday night. The Jets will look to cap off a perfect homestand as the Dallas Stars come to town Saturday afternoon.

"They're a team that their highs and lows, they don't have a lot of highs and lows. They're an even-keeled team. Just about how they play, they defend, they have structure, when it comes to their breakouts, they're good at it,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel.

“They're pretty predictable, but they're really good at it. They've been doing it as a group for a while. How they take away ice in the neutral zone. They have good speed on their counters through the neutral zone offensively.”

Winnipeg is perfect so far against Central Division rivals after their 1-0 win over Colorado on Thursday night. The Jets may have got the two points from the Avalanche, who knocked them out of the playoffs last April, but Colorado dominated over the final two periods. Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves for his second straight shutout and was the main reason Winnipeg moved to 13-1-0.

“You know what, there was some desperation. We knew we weren’t playing our best. But when they would make a pass or they would give a pass to the slot or get opportunities, we had good sticks,” said Mark Scheifele.

“Broke up some passes, broke up some chances that could have been tap-ins. There was some desperation. And obviously having Helle in the net, he was phenomenal. He won us that game.”

Scheifele made a great point with regards to the Jets performance defensively on Thursday night. The Avalanche had 10 high danger scoring chances through the final 40 minutes but Winnipeg. Over the first 13 wins of the season, Hellebuyck has only had to win one of them outright.

“Yeah, I think for the first period we were solid. And then from there they kind of took it to us. And Bucky was unbelievable,” said Mason Appleton.

“He made some saves that not a lot of goaltenders in the league make, but we got two points and there's some things you want to clean up and be a little faster, be a little cleaner out of our own end, and get back to how we kind of were in that first period. Now, I think we'll be there (Saturday).”

The Jets won’t hold a morning skate on Saturday because of the 2 pm CT start. So here are the line rushes from Friday’s practice:

Appleton is also confident that there will be a “bounce-back” effort this afternoon much like the game they played in Detroit following their 6-4 loss to the Leafs on Oct. 28.

“I think it's kind of the same feel, you're obviously going against Colorado, who knocked us out last year, biggest thing was to get the two points against them,” said Appleton.

“But like I said, there were things you want to we want to fix and adjust and clean those things up today in practice and just play clean, fast game tomorrow, which we're going to do.”

The Jets have won two of their past five games against the Stars after going 4-2-4 in the previous ten meetings. Six of the past 12 games between Winnipeg and Dallas have been decided in overtime or a shootout.

“They’re a great team. They play solid, their structure is fantastic.,” said Scheifele.

“They’ve got some great players, they make it hard for any team to play against them. We’ve got to be prepared for a tough matchup. We gotta be ready.”