Armia Scores 2 As Jets Beat Stars 6-3
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DALLAS (AP) - Joel Armia scored twice to double his season total, and the short-handed Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars 6-3 on Thursday night.
Blake Wheeler and Toby Enstrom scored during Winnipeg's three-goal first period, and Mark Scheifele and Jacob Trouba scored in the three-goal third. Scheifele also had three assists and Michael Hutchinson had 27 saves.
Jason Spezza had two goals for Dallas, including the tying score early in the third period, and Tyler Seguin also scored. Patrick Sharp assisted on all three goals. Antti Niemi gave up three goals on eight shots in the opening period, and Kari Lehtonen came on to start the second and finished with 17 saves.
Scheifele had the tiebreaking goal just under 7 minutes into the third, and Armia made it 5-3 just 40 seconds later. Armia also had an assist on Trouba's score with 4:05 left.
Winnipeg, last in the Central Division, ended a four-game losing streak.
The Jets were playing without former captain Andrew Ladd, traded to Chicago earlier in the day, and injured center Bryan Little.
Winnipeg scored all of its first-period goals in the five minutes, with Armia making it 3-0 with just under 3 seconds left.
Spezza got the Stars on the scoreboard with a power-play goal just under 2 minutes into the second. Seguin's 32nd of the season, also with the man-advantage, pulled Dallas within one less than 2 minutes later.
Spezza's second of the game tied it at 2:23 of the third.
Dallas still leads the Central by one point over Chicago, which lost to Nashville.
In the first period, Wheeler skated in from the right and lifted a shot over Niemi into the upper right corner of the net with 4:57 left.
Just 56 seconds later, the Stars' Valeri Nichushkin went low trying to block Enstrom's shot, but he lifted the puck over Nichushkin and under the crossbar. Armia's shot from the left faceoff circle tricked between Niemi's legs just before time expired.
NOTES: Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said newly acquired C Marko Dano would join the team Friday in Pittsburgh, where Winnipeg will play Saturday. ... With the trade deadline approaching on Monday, scouts from 10 NHL teams were in the press box. ... Also at the game was actor Cuba Gooding Jr., in Dallas to promote FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson" series. ... Sharp had four assists on Jan. 30, 2015, at Anaheim. ... Scheifele tied his career high of 15 goals, set last season. ... The Jets' Dustin Byfuglien has one assist in each of the last four games.
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