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Jets' Mark Scheifele Tells Painful Truth About Loss to Stars

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Rexwell Villas | Last updated May 8, 2025 7:11 AM ET

After missing the final two games of the Winnipeg Jets' first-round series against the St. Louis Blues because of an undisclosed injury, forward Mark Scheifele finally returned to action Wednesday night in Game 1 of their second-round affair versus the Dallas Stars.

Scheifele made his presence felt in the contest, scoring a goal in the third period but the Jets still ended up absorbing a 3-2 loss at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

Following the series-opening loss to the Stars, Scheifele said that it was "tough to watch" helplessly the Jets play Game 6 and Game 7 of the Blues, per Sportsnet.

As for the Stars game, the 32-year-old veteran skater offered a blunt assessment of Winnipeg's performance.

"Yeah, I don't think we really found it until the third period," Scheifele told reporters. "Obviously it wasn't a great start. Obviously we have some things that we can do better, but we didn't play great, and we were right in it. There's positives that you have to take out of it."

Winnipeg opened the scoring in the Dallas series with a Nino Niederreiter goal in the second period of Game 1, but the Jets failed to contain Stars forward Mikko Rantanen, who found the back of the net three consecutive times in the same frame to give his team a two-goal lead.

Scheifele's goal came just under three minutes left before the second intermission to cut Winnipeg's deficit down to one, but neither team scored another goal from that point, leading to a Dallas victory.

Winnipeg outshot the Stars, 31-24, but simply couldn't convert on several opportunities. The Jets' special teams struggled as well as goalie Connor Hellebuyck. Winnipeg went scoreless on four power play chances while Hellebuyck allowed three goals on 24 shots faced. He has now surrendered 22 goals in his last five starts.

A chance to even the series at 1-1 comes for the Jets in Game 2 on Friday, still at Canada Life Centre.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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