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Jason Spezza will miss "some time" with injury, Jamie Benn plays best game of season

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DALLAS — Jason Spezza was injured on a hit by Adam Lowry in the third period of a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and is going to miss extended time.

“I don’t really have an update for you,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “He’s going to miss some time, and it’s probably more than days. Until I find out more, I can’t give you that.”

With Spezza’s injury Curtis McKenzie will likely be back in the lineup on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Benn has best game

Jamie Benn had his best game of the season and had a goal and two assists. He nearly had a second goal and for the first time in a while he impacted the game every shift.

“I think if you look at the past 7-10 games, since really the (Cody) Eakin line was put together, his game’s been good. He’s been skating well, he was coming off the wall and beating guys back to the net,” Ruff said. “Down low he was winning battles, and made a great move to get the shot that hit the crossbar and did a lot of good things, played really well.”

While Benn played, well he was unhappy that he didn’t finish off a shorthanded breakaway against Ondrej Pavelec that changed the momentum of the game.

“Just trying to get better and trying to help this team get to a playoff spot,” Benn said. “I know I have to have a better effort out there, and try and lead these guys. I think that was a step in the right direction, but losing end it’s still not good enough.”

Postgame video

The goals

First period

6:50 Bryan Little scored on a wrist shot that fluttered over Kari Lehtonen’s left shoulder. Jets 1, Stars 0

11:55 John Klingberg scored on a rebound six seconds into the first power play of the game. After a face-off win Klingberg picked up the rebound to the right of the net and beat Ondrej Pavelec. Stars 1, Jets 1

13:59 Jamie Benn scored on a rebound after an initial shot by Patrik Nemeth. Stars 2, Jets 1

19:07 Mark Scheifele scored from the top of the left circle to tie the game. Stars 2, Jets

Second period

5:55 Scheifele scored his second goal of the game on a 5-on-3 power play. Jets 3, Stars 2

12:51 A bad turnover by Kari Lehtonen turned into a goal for Nikolaj Ehlers. Jets 4, Stars 2

17:58 Patrick Eaves scored his 19th goal of the season on a rebound. Jets 4, Stars 3

Jets lineup

Nikolaj Ehlers-Bryan Little-Patrik Laine
Andrew Copp-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler
Shawn Matthias-Adam Lowry-Joel Armia
Mathieu Perreault-Nic Petan-Chris Thorburn

Josh Morrissey-Dustin Byfuglien
Toby Enstrom-Jacob Trouba
Mark Stuart-Paul Postma

Ondrej Pavelec
Connor Hellebuyck

Scratched: Michael Hutchinson, Julian Melchiori, Brandon Tanev

Injured: Tyler Myers (lower body), Marko Dano (lower body), Ben Chiarot (upper body), Drew Stafford (lower body)

Stars lineup

Jamie Benn — Cody Eakin — Patrick Eaves
Antoine Roussel — Jason Spezza — Tyler Seguin
Devin Shore — Radek Faksa– Patrick Sharp
Lauri Korpikoski — Adam Cracknell — Brett Ritchie

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Jordie Benn
Patrik Nemeth — Stephen Johns

Kari Lehtonen
Antti Niemi

Scratched: Jiri Hudler, Curtis McKenzie, Julius Honka

Injured: Mattias Janmark (knee), Ales Hemsky (hip), Jamie Oleksiak (hand), Johnny Oduya (lower body)

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