Three things - Jets one step closer to Central title

The Winnipeg Jets are one step closer to their first ever division title as they beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 at American Airlines Center. Winnipeg is now 54-21-4 and need one more point in their last three games to clinch the Central, Kyle Connor scored twice, Morgan Barron and Nino Niederreiter added singles. Connor Hellebuyck recorded his 45^th win of the season to set a franchise record and on top of that had his eighth shutout this campaign and 45^th of his career. The Jets will fly to Chicago and will face the Blackhawks Saturday for their final road game of the regular season.

"Yeah. We had to be ready. This is obviously a team that, like we've talked about, they haven't left our rearview mirror all year long," said Scott Arniel.

"We had to be good early and I thought our first period was really strong and then we built off of that. Throughout our lineup, there were a lot of guys doing what they needed to do to help us have success."

ANOTHER DEFENSIVE CLINIC

The Jets locked down one of the hottest teams in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues on Monday holding them to just 15 shots. That momentum carried over to Thursday night as Winnipeg gave the Stars fits allowing just 24 Dallas shots and that meant that the Jets have held teams below 30 shots in 18 straight games. Natural Stat Trick said that the Stars had five high danger scoring chances in the first period at 5-on-5 but only managed two more over the final two periods. Even though Dallas had the better chances in period one, Winnipeg’s patience paid off at 18:37 when Nino Niederreiter redirected a Josh Morrissey shot behind Jake Oettinger for his 16^th.

BACK-TO-BACK FOR BARRON

The Jets fourth line has really started to shine since Morgan Barron was moved to the middle and Brandon Tanev was acquired at the deadline. Barron scored a big goal on Monday against St. Louis and his goal on Thursday night looked very similar as the big centre used his speed through the neutral zone and eventually finished things off with a power move to the front of the net and beat Oettinger.

40 GOAL SEASON FOR CONNOR

Kyle Connor made sure the Stars didn’t have a chance to come back in the third period with two goals 2:20 apart to blow the game open. First at 6:20, Alex Iafallo broke up a Dallas Stars scoring chance, sent a pass to Mark Scheifele who chipped the puck towards the front of the Stars net and Connor swooped in and beat Oettinger five hole for his 39^th. Scheifele set a career high with his 85^th point of the season.

At 8:40, Connor reached 40 goals for the second time in his career and again it started back in the Jets end of the ice with a solid defensive play. Josh Morrissey carried the puck up the ice waited until he saw Connor head to the front of the net, Morrissey sent a pass that was tipped nicely by Jared Anderson-Dolan right to Connor who joined Ilya Kovalchuk as the only players in franchise history to score 40 twice. Connor also set a career high with his 94^th point of the season.