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Jets' home-ice surge puts pressure on Stars to close out series in Saturday's Game 6


Jets' home-ice surge puts pressure on Stars to close out series in Saturday's Game 6

MANITOBA, Winnipeg -- There may not be a team with a greater home-ice advantage in the NHL than the Winnipeg Jets.

Whether it's the intimate 15,000-seat arena that booms when they score, or the whiteout crowd that fills it every night in the playoffs, the Jets are a different team on home ice -- and one that's not easy to beat.

The Stars learned that again in Game 5 Thursday night, as they were shut out for the second consecutive game at Canada Life Center, falling 4-0. The series now returns to Dallas for Game 6 Saturday night, where the Stars, up 3-2, again have a chance to clinch a spot in the Western Conference finals.

And after what they've seen through three games at Canada Life Centre, it'll be critical that they do so.

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"We knew this wasn't going to be easy," Stars forward Matt Duchene said. "We knew they weren't going to roll over on us."

The Jets are 6-1 at home this playoff run and 0-5 on the road. Their impressive regular season earned the Presidents' Trophy and home-ice advantage through the playoffs, which is an even bigger deal for a team that has such varying success on the road and at home.

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The Jets could've won the Stanley Cup this year by winning home games alone. They won their first-round series against St. Louis that way, though it took a miraculous comeback in Game 7 to do so.

But the Stars managed to steal one at Canada Life Center in Game 1. They rode the high of Mikko Rantanen's Game 7 hat trick to produce another in the second period of Game 1 and capitalized on the Jets' fatigue after their double-overtime battle in their Game 7.

Since then, however, the Stars haven't gotten anything going on the Canada Life Centre ice. They've been shut out for seven consecutive periods, making Connor Hellebuyck look like the Vezina and Hart Trophy finalist that he is.

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Stars coach Pete DeBoer felt last week's 4-0 Game 2 loss looked worse on the scoresheet than it was. A double-minor penalty 17 seconds into the game and a goal scored off Esa Lindell's skate dug the Stars into a hole they couldn't climb out of.

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But Thursday's Game 5 was all Jets from wire to wire.

Jake Oettinger single-handedly kept the Stars in the game through two periods. The Stars, despite trailing 22-9 in shots through 40 minutes, trailed only 1-0 in goals. The only goal at the time was an own goal off Thomas Harley.

But Winnipeg outplayed the Stars, with a 17-11 advantage in high-danger scoring chances and a 64.26% expected goals percentage.

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The Stars took nine penalties, which they cannot do on the road, and for the first time this series, the Jets found a way to capitalize. Their red-hot power play had gone cold early in the playoffs, but they went 2-for-5 Thursday night, as Nikolaj Ehlers scored on a 5-on-3 and Vladislav Namestnikov scored on another power play later in the third period. An empty-net goal iced the game.

"When they get out to a lead, they're really good at protecting it," Duchene said. "We had some looks, Hellebuyck played really well."

The Jets were, simply, the better team on home ice -- both in 5-on-5 and special teams -- as they often are.

Granted, they were desperate. Their season would've been over if they lost Thursday. They still need to win two consecutive games to extend their season, including one on the road, which they haven't been able to do in their last two postseason runs.

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The Stars need to keep Winnipeg's road playoff losing streak alive. Despite having a 3-2 series lead, that advantage vanishes if they must return to Winnipeg for Game 7.

And Pete DeBoer's flawless Game 7 record may not be strong enough to get them out of this round.

"They won the Presidents' Trophy. That's a really good team," DeBoer said. "We do have a great opportunity to go home and win this at home. We did what we had to do, which is win one game here in order to give us this opportunity of this elimination game, and if not, we'll have to come back in here and win another one."

Related StoriesView MoreNational reaction from Stars-Jets Game 5: Jamie Benn's punch, Jake Oettinger's playWatch: Stars' Jamie Benn lands clean punch on Jets' Mark Scheifele during Game 5 scrumFive thoughts from Stars-Jets Game 5: Dallas' offense goes cold as series continuesAdvertisement

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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