DALLAS _ As the Stars and Jets prepared for the third period of their game on Monday, the arena played the Star Wars Imperial March, essentially Darth Vader's theme song.
It was fitting. The Jets have been the Stars' personal evil empire for more than a season now. After the Stars lost in Winnipeg on Thursday, the script didn't change much in the Jets' 4-1 win in Dallas on Monday.
The Stars are now 1-6-0 against the Jets in the last two seasons.
On Thursday, Winnipeg scored three first period goals. On Monday it did the same thing. Jets forward Mark Scheifele scored a hat trick on Thursday. He opened the scoring on Monday, floating in and firing a shot past Stars goalie Ben Bishop, off the post and in, just 26 seconds into the game.
Less than five minutes later, the Jets went on the power play. Patrik Laine sauntered in from Bishop's right side and hit the short-side top corner to double the Jets lead.
Near the end of the first, a long breakout pass deflected off of Martin Hanzal in the neutral zone. The Jets picked it up and were treated to a 2-1 as Stars defenseman Dan Hamhuis fell down. Jets forward Kyle Connor took a cross-net pass from Blake Wheeler and finished it to put the Jets up 3-0 heading into the locker room.
It was Wheeler's third primary assist of the game.
On Thursday the Stars had a pair of fights and led a spirited comeback, cutting the lead to 3-2, before falling 5-2. The fights weren't there on Monday, and the comeback wasn't as spirited, thanks to Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
Jamie Benn got the Stars on the board in the second with a power play goal. Later in the period, with the Stars on another power play, a rebound popped out to Benn. He smacked the puck toward the open net, but Hellebuyck sprawled his legs out and got his pad on it.
Early in the third, Hellebuyck fought off a screen to stop a sharp shot from the blue line. A few minutes later, Benn danced around a Jets defender, but Hellebuyck smothered the shot attempt. With just over six minutes to go in the game, Benn had a wide open slap shot from just outside the top of the circle. Hellebuyck handled it easily.
He finished with 33 saves and remained undefeated in regulation, moving to 8-0-2 on the season.
Had the Stars won the game it would have moved them into second place in the Central Division. Instead they felt fell to 1-5-0 against their division brethren this season.
But there was some good news to come out of Monday. After a five-game road trip followed by two home games in three days, the Stars don't play again until Friday.
It's a much-needed break for a team that was missing three forwards _ Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa, and Tyler Pitlick _ to relatively minor injuries and played defenseman Jamie Oleksiak at forward.
There is better news, too: the Stars don't face the Jets again until the end of February.
