Jets’ top players must quickly find a way to outplay Mikko Rantanen and the Stars

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There is a simple reason the Dallas Stars take a 2-1 series lead into Tuesday’s Game 4, and there’s very little controversy in it.

In the battle of Winnipeg’s best players vs. Dallas’ best players, one skater stands alone. Mikko Rantanen has six points in three games. Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi have six points combined. And now that the Stars have last change on home ice, coach Pete DeBoer is getting Rantanen away from Adam Lowry’s shutdown line and playing him head-to-head with Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi instead.

The Stars want a power vs. power matchup. The Jets’ stars should be capable of handling it better than they did on Sunday.

And they’re going to have their hands full all over again in Game 4, so they’ll need to tighten up in a hurry, lest the Jets go home on the brink of elimination.

Rantanen dominated Sunday’s head-to-head matchup, scoring the 4-2 goal that put Game 3 out of reach. Winnipeg’s top line fell behind Rantanen on the long three-on-two rush, unable to provide backpressure, and watched him cut across the Jets’ zone with time to burn.

“It’s never too late to come back,” Connor said. “We’ve got to be able to stop them from going east to west the way he got into the zone like that.”

If any line can drag the Jets back to Winnipeg tied in the series, it’s Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi, but they’ve strayed from the defensive quality that saw each player post career-best two-way numbers this season. In Game 3, Natural Stat Trick credits Rantanen with a 7-1 lead in scoring chances against the Jets trio and 87 percent of expected goals.

And it’s not just that Rantanen is making brilliant plays. The Jets’ top line has slipped into some bad habits trying to create offence at the other end of the rink.

The Jets top line is flying the zone again, getting caught looking for offence before it’s there. Their low support on breakouts has wavered, keeping them hemmed in their own zone as opposed to moving them toward the attacking zone. Long before Rantanen’s dagger of a 4-2 goal, there were moments where Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi were above the puck in the Jets’ zone before it was saved. In one case, a Neal Pionk giveaway led to a dangerous moment for Rantanen and Roope Hintz with the Jets’ forwards caught at the blue line.

Rantanen has an advantage on this goal, given Vilardi has just come onto the ice, and he exploits the rest of Winnipeg’s coverage to maximum effect.

MIKKO RANTANEN CAN’T BE STOPPED 😅

📺: Watch Jets vs. Stars Game 3 on Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/1GfACUMgtf

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 11, 2025

“A bit of a breakdown by us,” Connor said. “They scored a couple (goals) off the rush, so we need to be better at that and take a look at that.”

Not one of Scheifele, Connor or Vilardi needs to be Rantanen’s equal. The three of them combined must find a way to keep Winnipeg in the game — and especially should have less than a minute after the controversial Alex Petrovic goal.

So, what comes next?

Looking forward requires looking back. Here’s Connor after Winnipeg’s Game 7 win against St. Louis. He’d been a factor on two Blues goals, losing position on one and giving the puck away on the other.

“How are you going to respond? How are you going to come back? You’re not just going to sit there and sulk. You have to do anything you can to help the team push forward.”

Connor responded by setting up both of Cole Perfetti’s goals, including the tying Game 7 buzzer-beater. His four-goal, eight-assist performance in Round 1 was instrumental in Winnipeg earning the Round 2 opportunity it has now. But his wraparound goal on Sunday was his first point of the series, and NHL Edge data shows he’s spent more time in his own zone than on the attack. (He also astonishingly hasn’t scored a power-play goal since December, although he is picking up assists.)

Kyle Connor doing Kyle Connor things 💪 pic.twitter.com/AyXpBs5IqL

— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) May 11, 2025

Connor led all Jets with six shots in Game 3, but none came from the low or center slot. His only slot shots at five-on-five in the series have been set up by Vilardi (1) or self-generated (2). His one attempt off a Scheifele pass into the slot was blocked.

Scheifele is still rounding into form. He’s still making great plays — including the shot he scored in Game 1 after Jamie Benn’s awful giveaway to Vilardi — but a lot of his passes are going awry. He’s gone from a league leader in passes into the slot to being stuck in his own zone too frequently to set up shop in his office along the endboards. Connor isn’t getting the chance to show how dangerous he is from the slot, partly because Scheifele isn’t making as many of his signature plays.

Vilardi is the trio’s points leader in the series, with a power-play goal and two assists in three games. He tends to be the most dangerous member of the power play, but the Stars penalty kill made great adjustments in Game 3. They denied more of Winnipeg’s power-play zone entries than they had in the first two games while extending their aggressive pressure to Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers down low. The Jets’ power play went 0-for-4, taking five shots, after looking excellent against the Stars in Game 2.

It’s back to the drawing board, then, even if the old cliches remain true. Winnipeg can win this series if its best players outplay Dallas’ best players. Rantanen is setting that bar impossibly high, but Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi can do more as a team to close the gap. Connor’s attitude from Game 7 will be the key: They have to respond. They can’t sit there and sulk. They have to do everything they can to help the team push forward.

This isn’t a Connor/Scheifele/Vilardi hit piece. It’s a recognition of the moment. There are games in the playoffs where great powers come with great responsibilities. Game 4 for Winnipeg is one of them — and it’s up to the Jets’ most dynamic players to take the power vs. power matchup DeBoer is feeding them and turn it on its head.

Championship teams don’t sulk about unfortunate calls. They don’t let collapses in one game turn into problems in the next. The Jets need a signature game from their top line — offensively and defensively — to keep them from the brink of elimination.

“We need to get one on the road here,” Connor said. “That next one is the best chance we’ve got.”

(Photo of Mikko Rantanen skating past Kyle Connor: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

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