Costly win for Jets over Stars
WINNIPEG The celebration over a hard-fought win that brought the Winnipeg Jets a step closer to locking up a playoff spot was muted Sunday night as another key member of the team went down with what looks like a troubling injury.
For all the excitement coming out of a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars at Bell MTS Place, there was also obvious concern over the health of defenceman Jacob Trouba, who left in the third period after a thunderous collision — with contact to the head — with Stars captain Jamie Benn.
Trouba tried to get to his feet but fell over after taking the hit, had to be helped onto the bench and went straight down the tunnel to the dressing room, presumably for concussion protocol.
“It’s always not good when that kind of stuff happens,” said Jets scoring star Patrik Laine, who led the way with two goals.
Jets coach Paul Maurice said there will be no official diagnosis until Monday but it’s obviously concerning because there was head-to-head contact between Benn and Trouba.
“I had a lousy seat there on the other side of the boards, but they both came together and it was helmet on helmet,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen before to players and they bounce back pretty quick.”
The Jets have dealt with a bunch of injuries lately but have repeatedly been able to weather the storm. They are getting close to clinching a playoff spot — they are now 12 points up on the Stars, who fell to ninth place in the Western Conference — and could have some time to rest players in the coming weeks, so they can get by without Trouba for now. If he is forced to miss any playoff time, it will be a big blow.
“Unfortunately, we’re becoming a little bit used to those scenarios,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler, who iced the game with an emptynet goal with 1:29 left in the third period.
On the bright side, the Jets won their second straight game to improve to 43-19-10 on the season and move seven points ahead of the Minnesota Wild in the race for second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
They did it with a methodical execution of the game plan and another two-goal performance from Laine, who is now tied for the NHL lead with Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, at 43. Laine has points in the last 15 games (18 goals, 26 points) and continues to fill the net against Dallas in particular. He has scored 14 goals in nine career games against the Stars.
Defenceman Ben Chairot also scored for the Jets in the second period, while Matthias Janmark and Benn scored for the Stars against Jets’s goaltender Connor Hellenbuyck, who made 30 saves.