Jets' Scheifele has goal and crucial penalty in Game 6 at Dallas after his father's unexpected death

DALLAS — Winnipeg top center Mark Scheifele scored a goal in the Jets' must-win Game 6 of their second-round playoff series at Dallas on Saturday night, hours after the unexpected death of his father.

But he also had the penalty that set up the Stars' power-play goal in overtime of a 2-1 loss that knocked the top-ranked Jets out of the playoffs.

Jets captain Adam Lowry went and got Scheifele out of the box when the game ended, and was clearly emotional afterward talking about it.

''We're a family. Just to let him know that we're there for him. It's just an awful day for him,'' Lowry said. "You want to give him the strength, you want to get that kill so bad. We just couldn't do it.''

During the handshake line afterward, Scheifele hugged and talked to just about everyone, with Stars players clearly offering their support to him in a heartwarming moment.

''For him to go through what he had to go through, and perform the way he did, so proud of him. And his dad would be so proud of him. He wanted to win so bad,'' coach Scott Arinel said. ''The circumstances, so, so tough. Being in a situation like that, I couldn't imagine it. The pro that he is, the leader that he is, the year that he had with us, his dad and his family would be very proud of him.''

Scheifele scored his fifth goal of the playoffs 5 1/2 minutes into the second period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. He scored on a short snap shot from just outside the crease after gathering the rebound of a shot by Kyle Conner.

It was tied at 1 when Sam Steel, who had already scored for Dallas, was on a break. Scheifele lunged forward desperately trying to make a play when he tripped up the forward at the blue line with 14.8 seconds in regulation. Scheifele and the Jets avoided a penalty shot on the play, but ended up losing on the power play when Thomas Harley scored 1:33 into overtime to end Winnipeg's season.

''There's just so many emotions surrounding it," Lowry said. ''Obviously, with Scheif's dad passing away, you want to be there, you want to support him, you want to be a good friend, a good teammate. And then you have your season come to an end where ultimately fell short of the goal. You worked so hard all year. ... It's just a lot.''

Scheifele was the last Jets player to leave the ice following pregame warmups, and during at least part of the singing of ''O Canada,'' he had his head bowed and eyes closed. He took the opening faceoff against Roope Hintz.

''The thing about Mr. Scheifele is he's part of our family. He's part of the Jets family. He goes back to 2011 when Mark was first drafted here,'' Arniel said before the game. ''We have a lot of players that came in around the time that are still here that he's been a big part of their life, along with their family. So it's certainly, obviously devastating for Mark, but also for a lot of guys on this team.''

There was no immediate word on the cause of Brad Scheifele's death.

The 32-year-old Mark Schiefele finished with 11 points (five goals, six assists) while playing in 11 of the Jets' 13 games this postseason. He missed Games 6 and 7 of the first-round series against St. Louis with an undisclosed injury after taking a pair of big hits early in Game 5 of that series. He had 87 points (39 goals and 48 assists) in the 82 regular-season games.

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl