DALLAS —At the end of the season, the Stars and the Jets are going to wonder what could have been.
All three games this season between the two Western Conference playoff hopefuls have gone into overtime, including Wednesday’s 3-2 Stars overtime win over. Tyler Seguin’s goal 57 seconds into overtime lifted the Stars, giving Dallas the extra point in the standings.
“Every game moving forward is big and we’re happy to get two points,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said.
Benn (shorthanded) and Denis Gurianov also scored for the Stars, while Blake Wheeler and Mark Schiefele (power play) scored for the Jets. Jake Oettinger made 20 saves.
The Stars will play their eighth straight game against a Central Division opponent when they visit Nashville on Thursday night.
The season series between the Stars and Jets should underscore how tight the Western Conference playoff race will be in the final two months. Each game gave out three points, including one to the loser. Each team could regret those extra points come season’s end.
Winnipeg is trying to get itself back into the playoff race, as the Jets are a tangential contender for one of the two Wild Card spot. Dallas is trying not only to target the second Wild Card spot, but also the first one currently held by the Predators.
Seguin gave his team reason to celebrate.
On a 2-on-1 in overtime with Miro Heiskanen, Seguin batted a puck past Connor Hellebuyck that snuck over the goal line. After a brief review, officials ruled it a good goal. Winnipeg hesitated to leave the ice, and Hellebuyck initially lobbied that the puck was hit with a high stick, but the Jets exited the ice after the announcement.
Seguin also had a hand in Gurianov’s goal that tied the game at 2, hitting Gurianov on the back door with 6:25 left in the third period. Benn’s goal was on a 2-on-1 rush with Roope Hintz, as Benn beat Hellebuyck five-hole with 2:10 left in the second period.
The Stars fell behind 2-1 when Schiefele scored after Benn was high-sticked in the face. There was no call on the ice, and Schiefele rocketed a shot past Oettinger from the left circle.
Dallas improved to 2-0-1 on the season against Winnipeg, and opened a five-point lead on the Jets with one game in hand.
Oettinger again? Before the game, Stars coach Rick Bowness did not rule out the possibility of starting Oettinger on both ends of the back-to-back, Wednesday vs. Winnipeg and Thursday at Nashville.
“Let’s say tonight he has 45 shots or he has 25,” Bowness said. “That comes into play. A lot of it has to do with the game tonight. If we can keep the chances and the shots down against, then that’s an open discussion. If it’s a tough night and we’re in our zone for way too much time and he’s making way too many saves, then that’s a whole other discussion we have to have.”
Oettinger has been the team’s best player recently, earning the NHL’s Third Star of the week after a week when he had a .972 save percentage and 0.98 goals against average. He had 46 saves in a win over Colorado and then shut out the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Braden Holtby has played just one game since Jan. 28, allowing three goals in a 4-0 loss to Colorado on Feb. 13. Wednesday was the eighth time in nine games that Oettinger earned the start for Dallas.
With the start, Oettinger shed his status as a waivers-exempt player, meaning he will be in the NHL from now on. In order to send Oettinger to the AHL, the Stars have to pass him through waivers, a process Dallas will not undergo with its franchise netminder.
Attendance low: The Stars announced an attendance of 10,098 on Wednesday night, the lowest attendance (excluding last season) since Dec. 7, 2013, when 8,567 fans attended a 5-1 win over the Flyers.
The icy road conditions around the metroplex kept people at home, combined with an earlier start time. Instead of the normal 7:30 p.m. weekday puck drop, Wednesday’s game began at 6:30 p.m.
By the third period, fans had filtered from the 300 level down to the 100 level.
Pride Night: The Stars hosted Pride Night on Wednesday night, wearing Pride-themed warmup jerseys and inviting Olympians and local figure skating pair Timothy LeDuc and Ashley Cain-Gribble to drop the ceremonial puck.
The warmup jerseys will be auctioned. Proceeds from the auction, from sales of the Stars’ Pride shirt and from the 50/50 raffle will go to You Can Play, an organization that “believes athletes should be judged on talent, heart, and work ethic, not sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”
Due to the storm, the Stars announced that they “are planning to wear these threads and celebrate Pride again at a future game this season.”
