The Dallas Stars took some costly penalties and were outplayed for 60 minutes in a 4-0 Game 5 loss against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

Penalty parade

The Stars have gotten away with taking penalties due to excellent penalty killing and dismal power plays from Winnipeg. But eventually, it felt like the league’s best power play and highest scoring team would snap out of it. Dallas needed to find a way to limit their penalties and not push that possibility into reality.

That didn’t really happen in the first period… for either side.

Sam Steel was called for holding early on… it wasn’t really a penalty, but it still led to a Winnipeg power play. They were unsuccessful again.

Then the Jets took consecutive penalties of their own, giving Dallas two unproductive and unsuccessful opportunities.

Despite just one power play against, Dallas really leaned on Jake Oettinger in the first 20 minutes. Oettinger stopped all 11 shots, including a few great chances in tight and a near goal in the final seconds of the period.

The Stars can afford to play a bit tentative, leading the series 3-1. They can bend, not break, and perhaps frustrate the Jets before striking in a counter. But they will definitely want to rely less on their goalie in the second.

Cautiously too cautious

The Stars had the freedom to play risk-free hockey in Game 5. They led the Jets 3-1 coming into the game, and knew if they defended hard and didn’t take too many chances, they would give themselves a chance to win the game.

And while that is precisely what they have done, down 1-0 after 40 minutes, they have also been a bit too cautious.

Nine shots through two periods is not good. That’s a pace of 13-14 in the game. Again, not good. Sure, they are playing with a bit of house money tonight, but these series shift very, very quickly. As I wrote about this morning and we talked about on the DLLS pregame, the Stars would do themselves a lot of favors closing out the series tonight in Manitoba.

If they do, Dallas gets through another series against a Cup contender and would get a decent break before taking on Edmonton in round three. If they don’t, the series shifts back to Dallas, where Winnipeg would fully believe in needing to only win one road game to put the series in their hands. I wouldn’t feel super confident in that, would you?

Defend hard, but also take a chance or two to create and try to tie the game.

How about the penalty kill after Mason Marchment’s offensive zone penalty? Cody Ceci lost his stick and used Roope Hintz twig — which is a left curve, Ceci is right-handed — for the remainder of the kill and even made a good play in tight to break up a down-low pass to the front of the net. Then Oettinger made a couple of nice saves and put his back into it with a skate/bottom of the pad save on Gabriel Vilardi.

It was pure chaos in its finest form. Here for it.

The kill and the save kept Dallas within one shot. Off to the final 20 minutes to see if they can make one count.

In the end, it was what we thought it was

Other than Craig Ludwig, the general consensus from us at DLLS was that this series would go 6-7 games. I fully believed that heading into tonight, and to be honest, the game played out as this series predicted.

Winnipeg played desperate. Dallas played tentative and a bit too loose. That led to penalties, mistakes, and only 15 shots as I begin writing this with under 10 minutes to go. Oettinger shut the door early, but otherwise, the Jets dictated and controlled this game for 60 minutes.

Connor Hellebuyck looked his regular-season self, Winnipeg finally found one and then two goals on the power play, and the Dallas penalty party cost them.

It was a bit disappointing, sure. But it was also another example of just how close these two teams are. Same can be said for the Colorado Avalanche in round one… two teams capable of winning the Stanley Cup.

This series won’t end tonight. And it’s not over yet. Just ask Jamie Benn and Mark Scheifele.

See y’all Saturday in Dallas.