Jets look to stay hot on home ice, keep season alive in Game 5
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While road woes continue to plague the Winnipeg Jets in the postseason, finding success once again on home ice is the team's singular focus entering Game 5 against the Dallas Stars.
The Jets will need to improve to 6-1 on home ice this spring in order to keep their season alive and push the series back to Dallas for Game 6. Winnipeg found key wins at home in their first-round series against the St. Louis Blues, taking Game 5 after losing two games on the road and completing a stunning comeback to win Game 7 in double-overtime.
"Maybe this is a little different, because it is elimination games from this point forward," Jets head coach Scott Arniel said Wednesday. "Those are things for our group, and I often talk about, is [we] can't do anything about what happened last night. There's some things we'll look at, there's some areas we need to improve on, there's some matchups that hopefully we'll get more in our favor being at home, and take advantage of those.
"We got to take care of business here if we want this extended series. We got to win at home. Obviously can't lose our last game, we got to make sure that we take care of business. We got [home ice] for a reason. So anything after tomorrow we'll worry about then, but all our focus is based on what we need to do tomorrow, and that's be the best version of ourselves and go out and win a hockey game."
The Jets suffered a 3-1 loss in Game 4, with Mikael Granlund providing all the offence with a hat trick for the Stars. Dallas took Game 3 with a 5-2 win, with a controversial goal by Alex Petrovic standing as the game-winner.
"Now our backs are against the wall and we've got to win our next game," Arniel added ahead of Game 5. "That's all part of this time of the year. … There's a lot of different scenarios. Now we have to step up and be at our best and learn from the lessons that we've had recently."
A 3-2 loss to the Stars in Game 1 is Winnipeg's lone loss at the Canada Life Centre in the playoffs. The Jets are 0-5 on the road and haven't won a playoff road game since the opening-round in 2023.
Should the team find a win in Game 5, their focus will quickly turn to solving that problem.
"If I had the answer to why, we would have got one at some point," forward Nikolaj 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."
Game 6, if necessary, is scheduled for Saturday in Dallas, with a Game 7 scheduled for Monday in Winnipeg, should the Jets extend the series that far.