Dallas Stars vs. Winnipeg Jets Game 1 Prediction, NHL Playoff Odds
Both Winnipeg and Dallas are priced at -110 on the NHL odds for Game 1 with a total of 5.5 goals.
Stars vs. Jets NHL Betting Odds
Almost impossibly, this marks the first-ever playoff series between the franchises despite both sitting in the Central Division – Winnipeg finished first and Dallas second. The Stars are looking to reach the Western Conference Finals for a third straight season but lost the past two. The Jets haven’t been there since 2018.
Despite Winnipeg being the Presidents’ Trophy winner during the regular season, it is a +135 underdog on the series line with Dallas at -160. The favoured result is Stars in six at +350, followed by in seven and Jets in seven both at +450. I tend to think it goes seven games as both teams’ first-round series did. That it goes seven is +190, while a sweep by either side is +600.
No Blues-Jets game was close to a shutout in Round 1, but one Avalanche-Stars game was a blanking – a 4-0 Colorado victory in Game 4. That there are no shutouts in this series is -145 with one at +180. I’d lean one. Both clubs had at least one overtime game in Round 1. That there’s one in this series is the +145 favourite, and I’d recommend that. None is +270.
Winnipeg won the regular-season series 3-1, allowing just five total goals.
Dallas Stars
The Stars beat an excellent Colorado team in Game 7 on Saturday, 4-2 in Dallas, to advance. Former Avalanche star forward Mikko Rantanen, the big Dallas acquisition at the trade deadline (but from Carolina, not Colorado), had a third-period hat trick. The Stars trailed 2-0 entering. Rantanen became the first player in Stanley Cup playoff history with a hat trick in the third period of a Game 7. It was only the fourth multi-goal third-period comeback in a Game 7 ever. The previous three times the Stars defeated the Avalanche in a Game 7, they advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals (1999, 2000, 2020).
Jake Oettinger started every game of the first round and finished with 2.85 GAA and .911 SV. Oettinger started all four regular-season games vs. the Jets with a 3.73 GAA and .869 save percentage. The Stars are expecting two of their most important players to play in this series after neither did in Round 1 in forward and regular-season leading goalscorer Jason Robertson and blueliner Miro Heiskanen. It just may not be for Game 1.
Winnipeg Jets
The first-ever Game 7 in the city of Winnipeg’s history will not be forgotten anytime soon as the Jets rallied from down 3-1 late in the third period Sunday night to oust St. Louis, 4-3 in double overtime. Vladislav Namestnikov’s second goal of the series at 18:04 cut the deficit to one, and then Cole Perfetti became a franchise legend with his second goal of the game tying it at 19:57. Both those goals came with Connor Hellebuyck pulled. Perfetti’s goal was the latest game-tying goal in a Game 7, topping the record set by the Canucks’ Matt Cooke (59:54) in the 2004 conference quarterfinals against the Flames. Adam Lowry’s third goal of the series at 16:10 of the second OT was the winner.
Winnipeg was 2-25 all time in the playoffs when trailing by multiple goals at any point in the game. But the Jets aren’t beating the Stars if Hellebuyck doesn’t return to regular-season form. He finished the Blues series with a 3.85 GAA and .830 SV. Winnipeg also has two big injury questions for Game 1: Forward and captain Mark Scheifele and defenceman Josh Morrissey. Scheifele missed the final two of the first round and Morrissey was injured in Game 7. Those two combined for 149 regular-season points.
DAL
WIN