DALLAS (AP) Michael Hutchinson wasn’t concerned when Dallas’ Tyler Pitlick scored in the first 10 seconds of the Winnipeg goalie’s first game in 25 days.”The first goal’s not that important Alex Pietrangelo Jersey Kids ,” Hutchinson said. ”We have 59 minutes and 50 seconds to come back and get another one. We were able to battle back.”The Jets didn’t need that much time on Saturday night. They scored five goals in the second period and went on to beat the Stars 5-3.Patrik Laine scored two goals and Dustin Byfuglien had three assists in the period.”I thought Dustin Byfuglien was the best player on the ice tonight,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. ”He knocked some pucks down, broke up so many plays and then the offensive part of his game is the best hockey I’ve ever seen him play.”Winnipeg moved into a tie with Nashville atop the Central Division. The Jets have outscored opponents 29-12 in winning five of their last six.Hutchinson, who has won both of his NHL starts this season, finished with 33 saves.”He made some really good saves,” Maurice said. ”He gave us a chance to win the game tonight with his play. That’s what you ask from those guys.”Byfuglien assisted on the first three goals, by Nikolaj Ehlers, Toby Enstrom and Mark Scheifele. On the fourth, assists went to Ehlers and the goalkeeper. It was the first assist of Hutchinson’s 101-game career.Ehlers started Winnipeg’s scoring and finished it with assists on Laine’s goals. In eight career games against Dallas, Laine has 16 points (12 goals, 4 assists).”His shot is pretty unique,” Ehlers said. ”He can put it in pretty much from anywhere, so he’s playing well against these guys.”The second-year player had a chance for another goal early in the second, but his penalty shot went wide.”Most times Patty doesn’t score, you still think he could have had three or four,” Maurice said. ”Didn’t miss on the penalty shot by much.”Dallas’ Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves on 21 shots. Ben Bishop replaced Lehtonen after the fourth goal with 8:01 left in the second and stopped five of six shots.Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars late in the second. Alexander Radulov added a goal with 47 seconds to play. They each assisted on the other’s goal.The Stars’ lead for the first wild card in the Western Conference dropped to one point over Calgary.”We were in a position to take a big step,” Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. ”We didn’t take it. They made us pay for every mistake.”Dallas took a quick lead after Radek Faksa won a faceoff, and the puck went back to Pitlick in the left faceoff circle. He unloaded a snap shot past Hutchinson into the upper right corner of the net.Laine reached 30 goals for the second straight season with a snap shot from the right circle and added number 31 from the slot at with 1:13 left in the period.NOTES: Six of Scheifele’s 19 goals this season have come in three games against Dallas. … Winnipeg has won the first three games of the season series by a combined score of 14-6. … Pitlick’s goal was his career-high 12th of the season. It was the earliest goal off a faceoff in Stars history. … Hutchinson has spent most of this season with Manitoba of the AHL. … Enstrom has 54 career goals but had not scored in 87 games since his 53rd on Nov. 3, 2016. … Dallas is 1 for 18 on the power play in its last eight games. … Winnipeg D Tyler Myers skated gingerly off the ice late in the third period after blocking a shot. Maurice said he believed Myers was OK.UP NEXTJets: Return home to face Nashville on Tuesday.Stars: Play the second in a five-game homestand on Tuesday vs. Calgary.— WASHINGTON (AP) A salary-cap squeeze threatened to slam the Washington Capitals‘ Stanley Cup window shut. Instead, it busted it wide open.When the dollars didn’t add up to be able to keep a handful of key contributors to back-to-back Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams, the Capitals went bargain hunting to sign bought-out winger Devante Smith-Pelly, who general manager Brian MacLellan termed a ”project.” Up against the cap at the trade deadline, they acquired lightly used defenseman Michal Kempny from Chicago.”Some of the best acquisitions are ones that are under the radar, ones that fit almost seamlessly,” coach Barry Trotz said. ”Some of the best deals that we’ve made are those ones that, even myself I’m like, `Hmm, that’s a little bit of an upgrade, not a big one.’ And they ended up being the biggest upgrades because they’re not sexy names.”Kempny said ”probably nobody knew my name when I came here or played in Chicago,” and Smith-Pelly had his name on the back of three other NHL teams’ jerseys before this season. Now they’re key pieces for a team one win from the Stanley Cup after the Capitals hit on exactly the kind of moves every championship contender is looking to make.All it cost was a one-year deal at the league minimum to sign Smith-Pelly after he was bought out by the Devils, and a third-round pick to get Kempny from the Blackhawks. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby have led Washington to this point, up 3-1 on the Vegas Golden Knights with the chance to raise the Cup after Game 5 on Thursday night. But they wouldn’t be here without the contributions of Smith-Pelly and Kempny.After a seven-goal regular season, Smith-Pelly has six goals in the playoffs Womens Alexander Steen Jersey , including potential series daggers in Games 3 and 4 of the final. This isn’t exactly where the 25-year-old thought he’d be just under a year ago when he found out a minute before the buyout deadline that the Devils were cutting him.”You only get so many chances to stick,” said Smith-Pelly, a 2010 second-round pick who bounced from Anaheim to Montreal to New Jersey, never putting up more than 17 points in a season. ”I knew that this could be my last one, so I kind of took the buyout personally and listened to what the coaching staff had to say and what they wanted, and just went out there and did it.”Smith-Pelly wasn’t even guaranteed a roster spot when he signed. He developed into a teammate on and off the ice that helped propel the Capitals to another division title despite losing forwards Justin Williams, Marcus Johansson and Daniel Winnik, and defensemen Nate Schmidt, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk last summer. He was the Capitals’ Masterton Trophy nominee for perseverance and dedication to hockey after taking an incident of racist ”basketball, basketball, basketball” taunts and turning it into a positive when he facilitated money be donated to Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Washington.”What happened was obviously pretty negative,” Smith-Pelly said. ”But for the people of Chicago to feel that they needed to donate money and for me to give it to Fort Dupont I thought turned a pretty bad thing into something that could change many kids’ lives in that area.”Smith-Pelly always seems to find the positive. He brushed off a puck to the face at the morning skate Monday and scored a back-breaking goal that night.Kempny has done the same. Stepping on a puck during pregame warmups led to a spill and stitches across the bridge of his nose, but the 27-year-old missed no time. He then pumped in a Game 4 goal that helped put the Capitals on the verge of winning the Cup.It’s the latest impact Kempny has made on his new team after fitting in as a top-four defenseman alongside John Carlson.”He played big minutes against top players, be it the (Evgeni) Malkins and the (Sidney) Crosbys, and he’s done a really good job,” Trotz said.” He’s just one of those players that is effective – efficient, effective, gets it done. You’re not going to see a lot of offense. He’s got some great looks, though. You talk about a guy who’s developing maybe from more of a stay-at-home type of defenseman to a guy who recognizes opportunity.”This is the opportunity Kempny had been waiting for after being a third-pairing defenseman with the Blackhawks, and sometimes a healthy scratch. Coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t a fan, so the Capitals made a deal arguably more meaningful than Evander Kane to San Jose, Paul Stastny to Winnipeg, or Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay.”Adding Kempny helped a lot,” MacLellan said. ”I think we had him projected right. He’s a good skater, a good puck mover. I know he was not always in the lineup in Chicago, but he was our No. 1 target going into the trade deadline.”Carlson watched video of Kempny’s games to get an understanding of his new defense partner. Kempny had to regain his confidence after feeling like the ”last warm body on the bench.””When you are not playing, you can’t be a better player. It’s impossible,” Kempny said. ”I never played in Chicago against top lines. I didn’t know if I could play against them or not. But I got a chance here, so I proved to myself that I can play against top lines.”The Capitals have shown they can play against and beat anyone, with Smith-Pelly and Kempny proving to be perfect pieces for a team eying a championship.”Everything’s worked out very well,” Smith-Pelly said. ”If we end up winning, that would be the cherry on top.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—
